Bart’s Story
Bart sustained a significant and life changing brain injury.
His injury resulted in a permanent, complex and multi-faceted cognitive impairment that impacts on his ability to live independently. Due to his cognitive challenges, when we first met Bart, he was living at home with 24 hour live-in carers whose role was to ensure his wellbeing and safety.
During our initial discussion with Bart and those supporting him, we learned that he wished to be able to live as independently as possible in his own home. Bart was (and is) undergoing a process of rehabilitation and reablement with significant input from his support team and therapists.
In order to progress towards his goal of living independently, Bart’s team were aware that he would benefit from technologies that could monitor his activities and be tailored to provide a bespoke suite of outputs and information. This would replace some of the current direct human support and help Bart make informed and safe choices.
As Bart is still in his reablement phase, such technologies would also need to be flexible enough to accommodate changes in his capacity and needs, to step in when he needed additional support or to step back when he was making progress.
Following a comprehensive and holistic assessment, My Ecosystem recommended a highly personalised package based on Bart’s needs and preferences. My Ecosystem installed a hybrid technology-based system that synthesised differing elements of activity monitoring, smart home control and innovative feedback on his behaviours. My Ecosystem worked alongside Bart’s rehabilitation team of occupational therapists, assistive technology experts and support staff.
Hear from Bart’s multidisciplinary team
I am not aware of any other single company in the UK that offers the service of My Ecosystem. They assessed our client’s telecare, health, behavioural analytics, environmental control and rehab programme, and then used their knowledge and expertise to design a bespoke client centred solution and quotation to meet all of these needs.
Then My Ecosystem talked us through all of the different options available, with a cost breakdown of each component which gave us the information we required to make the right choices for our client and take the project forward for cost approval with the expected outcomes.
We have already seen improvements in the level of carer prompting required and therefore a decrease in behavioural problems. Using the behavioural analytics data we have been able to monitor our client during the night, establishing his night time behaviours, movement patterns, toileting and epilepsy trends without invading his privacy. This helped us to determine a treatment plan with his therapy team and monitor progress without waking night support, which reduced the associated care costs.
We have also been able to address temperature controls throughout the home to help manage his thermoregulation issues. We are working on automated time based verbal prompts to remind our client to exercise, put in his hearing aide, take medication, clean his teeth, etc, and these can be updated and changed through his platform by the support team as he progresses or his needs change.
Sensors around the home will also trigger an automated voice prompt if he gets stuck in a task, i.e. perseverating in hand washing in the bathroom or staying in the shower for too long. The smart care systems can also alert the care team of any irregular movement patterns, if he leaves the home unaccompanied will be an essential part of building his interval independence moving forwards.
Nicole Cocksedge
Brain Injury Case Manager and Occupational Therapist
Technologies
CCTV Outside
Heating
Lighting
Cooling
Activity / remote
health monitor
Blinds
Access control
Smoke detector
Smart speaker
Voice Prompts
Flood detector
Smart TV
Sonos sound
system
Temperature/humidity
system
Behavourial
patterns/analysis
Alarm
system
The smart care technology from My Ecosystem has allowed us to monitor Bart’s bedroom/bathroom activity and continence routine, giving us access to information we wouldn’t have had previously in a non-invasive way.
Once the systems have learnt Bart’s behavioural patterns we plan to introduce interval independence, leaving Bart at home for short periods of time which is gradually increased. In order to do this, we need to learn Bart’s behaviours so things outside of the parameter are flagged, and we need to be aware of activity within the home, i.e. if the oven was turned on, the front door opened, or there was no movement.
It is often difficult to measure cognitive rehabilitation, but through My Ecosystem we can measure progress.
We are using smart care technology to aid a rehabilitation journey. We are finding out about our client’s behaviours and using the information gathered as an investigative tool, whilst also giving his family a sense of comfort.
David Fulcher
Team Leader (Support)
The My Ecosystem team was very efficient in putting together a proposal for my client.
My Ecosystem worked with the client and multidisciplinary team to install his Smart Technology quickly which worked around his requirements. They were flexible to an ever-moving completion date and responded promptly to emails. They were also proactive in providing updates on costs and progress, making sure we were always in the loop.
Victoria Ward
Senior Associate Solicitor, Irwin Mitchell LLP
