DISRUPTIVE TRENDS IN AGED CARE

DISRUPTIVE TRENDS
IN AGED CARE
Using Technology to Get Ahead

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We’ve entered an era of low cost
‘smart devices’ that can improve
the standard of care and offer
greater independence to our
country’s ageing population.
Growing old in Australia is changing. There is currently more information online
to help families find the right services, and processes are increasingly
automated to improve the safety, security and quality of aged care facilities.
But is the system changing fast enough to cater to the 3 million people over the
age of 65 in Australia? Are aged care providers staying on top of digital trends
that could improve the health and welfare of their residents? And what about
people who wish to avoid going into care? What about areas where there’s an
overwhelming lack of vacancies?
Companies are responding to the growing consumer demand for ‘connected
independence technology’ - things like in-home monitoring and security devices
- by creating a range of products designed to play an assistive role in allowing
older people to live independently for longer.
This technology can significantly improve the quality of life of older people,
whether they reside in care or at home. Smart devices are now equipped with
cameras, trackers, GPS, voice command, Bluetooth, mobile connectivity and
sensors to monitor older people’s activity and ensure things like medication is
correctly taken and accidents promptly addressed.

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The Challenges Facing
the Aged Care Sector
Census data published by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics
shows that between 1994 and 2014
the number of people aged 65 years
and over increased from 11.8% of the
total population to 14.7%. What’s
more, the proportion of people aged
85 years and over almost doubled
from 1.0% in 1994 to 1.9% in 2014.
As our life expectancy continues to
increase, we’re seeing a greater
demand for aged care - a demand
that providers are struggling to
meet. At the same time, a growing
number of older people simply don’t
want to enter a facility, and in many
regions in Australia, a lack of
vacancies means that this isn’t an
option anyway.
By 2028, we’ll see more people over
the age of 60 than under the age of
20. With a decreasing tax base and
increasingly dependent ageing
population, governments will have to
look for ways to drive down the cost
of care while enhancing its quality,
convenience and efficiency.
To do this, we must ensure
widespread and sustained adoption
of assistive technology.

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How Technology is
Changing the Face of
Aged Care
Assistive technology and smart devices offer better access to care services;
they reduce the number of home visits by healthcare providers and offer the
most up-to-date information to care staff.
For people who wish to avoid going into aged care, technology gives their loved
ones the emotional confidence to leave their parents or relatives at home for
longer. It’s often very distressing to move family members into a facility, and
these devices can extend their at-home comfort.
But, well, how are old people
supposed to actually use technology?
We’re not exactly talking
smartphones for teenagers here….
Professor Jeffrey Soar holds a Personal Chair in Human-Centred Technologies
in the School of Management and Enterprise at the University of Southern
Queensland and believes that assistive technology need to be accessible and
user friendly in order to see sustained adoption at the level at which we’ve
experienced in other fields.

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“It needs to be passive and unintrusive in order to succeed. Devices need
to exist without much maintenance from older people who might not be
comfortable with technology to begin with. Where people have to wear
something or interact with a machine, they’re less likely to do that,” says
Soar.
And developers in this space have certainly listened.
Consumer independence technology is
currently a $2 billion industry that is
expected to grow to around $30 billion by
2020.
Examples of devices already in existence
today include mobile push-button
emergency response systems, digital pill
dispensers that unlock the correct dosage
each day, daily activity trackers with
biometrics monitoring, and even GPS
insoles to keep an eye on wandering
parents. All of these devices can be
programmed remotely and require little
interaction from their elderly users.

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Key Trends Affecting
Aged Care
Assistive technology can be broken up into three broad categories. Each
contributes to the quality of care and overall wellbeing of our ageing population in
different ways.
1
Communication technology
Smart devices aren’t just about monitoring the movements
of frail Australians. They’re not all designed to take away
the privacy (and dignity) of their subjects, even though
such devices might give family members much needed
peace of mind. Communication technology, such as Skype
and FaceTime, links people with their loved ones in remote
areas and provides affordable ways to keep in touch.
For technology resistant older people, the Jitterbug Plus
from Samsung offers large, easy-to-use buttons and a
simple interface for basic communication needs.

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2
Tracking and monitoring technologies
Lively is by far the most popular activity tracking
system and gives family members insight with
in-home activity sensors that share the daily routine
of their loved ones. There’s also an optional smart
watch that doubles as an emergency response button
and offers intelligent reminders to eat or go for a
walk. Lively ports can be attached to everyday things
like the fridge and medicine cabinet, and the company
can send healthcare professionals and loved ones
alerts if there’s a break in daily routines or habits.
Similar companies such as Dropcam or Piper use
cameras throughout the home to monitor activity and
sync with a smartphone to maximise convenience.
Within this space there’s an emerging number of mood tracking devices
that can be integrated with physical health information to provide a more
detailed picture of a loved one’s wellbeing.
3
Assistive technology for around the
home
We might not be at the level of robot housekeepers
and Jestons-esque automation, but help around the
house in the form of robot vacuum cleaners and
automated window cleaners are both affordable and
extremely convenient for seniors. There’s also
automowers, smart locks and even cooking systems
that switch off if the stove appears to have been left
on for too long.

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Barriers to the Success
of These Innovations
Policy makers and healthcare professionals have been reluctant to adopt these
technologies in any systematic way and, as a result, they have largely failed to
reach a mass audience.
According to Professor Soar, many interdisciplinary players are now moving
into the healthcare sector from non-traditional areas such as consumer
electronics, telecommunications and software development, and these new
ways of doing things may be contributing to our reluctance.
“There is a need for an even greater range of disciplines in the future, however
this requires healthcare providers and policy makers to be open to new
business models. There’s a disconnect between people designing and selling
these technologies and the people running health and aged care
organisations,” says Soar.
Accessibility and unobtrusiveness are also key factors.
“Most of us don’t welcome ageing and disability and we’re
not happy to be reminded of our loss of capacity. So if
there’s technology that can operate in the background that
can track our actions and mood that will surely include
increased adoption.”

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Disruptors in the Sector
Careseekers is an online platform that
connects people looking for in-home
carers with the right provider. The
service, which was established in 2014,
was founded on the premise that baby
boomers, who make up the largest
demographic in Australia today, are
getting older and will use aged care
services differently to previous
generations.
“They [the boomers] will expect more
consumer choice; they are comfortable
outsourcing and they want to age in
place (at home) and maintain a good
quality of life,” says Careseekers
co-founder Lauren Sandler. “These
factors will lead to disruption and
innovation in the aged care industry as
they are not the values that have
underpinned the delivery of aged care
services in the past.
“Baby boomer families have fewer
children and are often dispersed
interstate and overseas, which means
loved ones are not able to help their
ageing parents and innovative
solutions need to be found.”
Sandler believes that the biggest
disruption to the industry over the next
3-5 years will be a move towards
consumer directed care and the
privatisation of government services
(as we have already seen with
Australian Unity and Home Care).
Careseekers aims to offer quality
carers at affordable prices, with a
range of online profiles and reviews
that help consumers find the right
helpers for their loved ones.

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Similarly, Aged Care Reviews is a
consumer review website for the aged
care industry, pushing transparency
and educating the industry of the
importance of moving towards a
consumer focused model.
Kenneth Ray is the co-founder and
chief executive officer of Aged Care
Reviews and believes that there is no
other industry that involves such stress
and family strain as aged care. At the
same time, there is often very little
time and comparison material from
which to make an informed decision
about the right provider for your loved
one.
“Aged care operators have existed with
long waiting lists for a long time. Their
main focus hasn’t been the consumer,
but has been regulatory – making sure
they meet government accreditation
standards. This has bred a philosophy
more concerned with paperwork than
customer service.
“In this backdrop the ordinary
consumer is being asked to sell their
family home to enter a nursing home.
We calculate the average Residential
Accommodation Deposit (bond) is
approaching $500,000 in Victoria. Most
aged care entry decisions are made in
weeks, off the back of a medical event
that renders a family member unable
to move back home,” says Ray.
Both business leaders firmly believe
that the pace of change in aged care
will only increase as the industry
becomes more ‘market based’.
“It will be an amazing time for
innovation and digital disruption,” says
Ray.“As more senior managers come
into the industry from outside
traditional care sectors, we think many
more of them will bring strategies and
philosophies that will only enhance the
consumer experience.”

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Conclusion
Digital technology is now widely accessible. If we ignore its benefits and fail to
exploit assistive devices we will only disadvantage our aged care system and the
people within it.
Despite its benefits, there remains a low level of adoption for smart devices and
assistive technology. Some chalk this down to a widespread perception that
smart home projects have rarely moved into sustainable mainstream use,
while others feel that is a more systemic failure.
There’s no reason that technology shouldn’t play a big role in improving the
ageing process, just as it has done in almost all other areas where it offers
consumer convenience, greater transparency and control, improved productivity
and efficiency.
There’s no reason that technology shouldn’t play a big role in improving the
ageing process, just as it has done in almost all other areas where it offers
consumer convenience, greater transparency and control, improved productivity
and efficiency.

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Appendices
Assistive Health Technologies for Independent Living report prepared by the
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences
Living Longer, Living Better report prepared by the Australian Government
Talk by Professor Marcus Wigan at the Graduate House Monthly Luncheon -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMQivxvaxY
Constructing Age and Technology as Augmentation, not Degradation report
prepared by Marcus Wigan.
Websites :
www.lifetec.org.au
http://www.aarp.org
http://www.lifehack.org/316105/3-newtechnologies-care-for-aging-parent
http://www.careseekers.com.au/
http://agedcarereviews.com.au/
http://integratedliving.org.au/
http://www.australianageingagenda.co
m.au/2015/02/06/debate-arent-ahead-a
ssistive-technology/