TAPPI Cast – 14 April 2023

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Welcome to TAPPI Cast, our weekly update on the 'Technology for our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation' (TAPPI) project which aims to improve the way technology is used in housing and care for older people.

Updates from our Testbeds:

Our residents at Dairy View who are taking part in the pilot scheme have been feeding back their thoughts on the technology – this will help inform our wider planning to introduce more TEC in Wiltshire. Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living is asking residents what they think of the care technology experience so we can use it wider across Wiltshire. 

Susan said: “I am still getting used to the digital system in my flat and find it useful to see people on the screen and have a choice and decide whether to let them in my flat or not."

Kerri said: “The new Smart Living Solution system in our flats has allowed me to talk to a friend in the flats, from flat to flat without leaving my home. I can see his face and talk to him. It took a little while to get use to but now I am and call my friend often. I feel I can connect to people from my room, which I wasn’t able to do before."

We’re open! Bield’s Digital Hub was opened for staff and tenants on Friday 31st March. Staff and tenants from both our West Port and Brae Court developments enjoyed a tour of the Digital Hub and got to see some of our new technology in action – from fall sensors, VR headsets and automatic curtain openers to a robot dog!  From this month onwards, we are encouraging all staff to visit the Digital Hub.  There will be an official opening of the Hub for external stakeholders on Friday 28th April.

Please see the video from Bield’s staff and tenant preview opening of our digital hub. Since then, the TriTech team have been trained by Anthropos in installing the technologies and the team are working on getting these into participants’ homes to begin the trial.

Publications of interest:

TAPPI Phase 2: New personal stories from TAPPI Champions

The second phase of TAPPI is committed to co-production. The approach we have designed is a Champions’ model. Each of the six TAPPI testbed sites nominated staff and tenants to join the Co-production Champions Group. There are 17 members of the Champions’ group, 9 tenants and 8 staff.

The Champions’ group makes sure that the voice of later life housing tenants is at the heart of everything that TAPPI does, enabling TAPPI to be rooted in people’s lives and the reality of their experiences.

The 4 personal stories collected here are the authentic voices of the Champions. The stories cover the positives and negatives of digital technology, peoples’ hopes and fears and highlight how technology can be both a blessing and a curse.

Technology-Enabled Lives: Delivering Outcomes for People and Providers

Over the past five months, the TEC Action Alliance has heard evidence from a range of people who draw on care, along with frontline workers and leaders in care, health, housing and local government.

Published by the TEC Action Alliance at ITEC23 on Monday, this new report examines barriers to widespread adoption.

To coincide with this report, TEC Action Alliance shared ‘A guide to getting started in co-production’ on why co-production must be integral to health and care, always the starting point, always defined by the individual who will receive the support to live a good life.

Forthcoming events of interest:

Click here (opens new window) for a list of all forthcoming TAPPI related events, including:

  • 27-29 June in Manchester - CIH Annual Conference 'H​ousing 2023' (opens new window) - Prof Roy Sandbach, TAPPI Chair, Lynn Douglas, CEO, Bield Housing & Care, and Debra Edwards, TAPPI Co-production Champion will run a TAPPI sessions along with other TAPPI presentations during the conference by Alyson Scurfield, CEO, TSA; Jeremy Porteus, CEO, Housing LIN; and Jirko Hoogerwerf, TAPPI Steering Board member.