The application of new technologies is a challenge but also an opportunity for the care of the elderly. Applications or digital solutions normally integrated in homes and residences can become instruments of humanization of treatments for the elderly, helping them to remain in their social environment with guarantees of security and to be able to provide high quality services.

The Ical Agency brought together in an informative forum the Regional Administration, which has 200 million euros from the European Reconstruction Fund to carry out the great transformation of care for the elderly; to Telefónica, the main telecommunications company in Spain, and to Aerial, a company that is testing a pilot project with Telefónica in Ponferrada (León) to detect the movement of people in their homes via the Wi-Fi network and thus help monitor them and remote care.

The Minister of Family, Isabel Blanco, together with the regional director of Telefónica Centro, Beatriz Herranz, and the commercial director of Aerial, Javier González Barahona, agree on the need to engage in the technological development of care to improve the quality of life of the elderly and respond to their most pressing problems: unwanted loneliness and falls in the environment.

The figures themselves give an idea of ​​the challenge facing Castilian and Leonese society. 25% of the citizens of the Community are over 65 years old, and within this group, 35% are over 80 years old, with the handicap that it is a very dispersed population.

In this sense, the regional director of Telefónica Centro warns that in 2050 the number of elderly people who will not be able to fend for themselves will increase fourfold, so society has an obligation to find solutions for these people. To do this, he stresses that technology must be a tool, “never a barrier”, based on solutions perceived by users as part of their daily lives and allowing the control and monitoring of the elderly and the fight against solitude. “Just as the pandemic has caused a transformation in health care, now is the time to change social services and technology must be key to that transformation,” he says.

In this sense, Blanco explains that a complete transformation of the care model has already begun in Castilla y León, which aims to combine care for the elderly who wish to continue living at home with those who need a residential model. “The big turning point we have set for ourselves is to give older people what they want and need in the environment in which they live,” he says.

It is in this new model of dependency care 5.0 that the Ministry has been working since the last legislature, putting the use of technology at the service of people through a networked care system and committing to a system preventative that helps personal autonomy. Pilot projects of this model are already operating in some provinces.

Adaptation of houses

The two pillars of this online care are that users remain in their homes after adaptation of housing, both from an architectural point of view – removal of barriers and adaptation of bathrooms – and installation of the necessary technology. allowing their monitoring and, thus, facilitating the care of the people who take care of them.

In addition, Blanco points out that the fundamental tool and the “big leap” in progress is advanced remote assistance, a project that could be implemented 100% next year, with a single contract for all of Castile and León and with a free service for all people over 65, “so that it becomes a subjective right”.

In this way, the “button” would go to a domotization of the house itself, with motion sensors, CO2 detectors and with the necessary tools to proactively monitor people, controlling values ​​such as temperature , heart rate or sugar level. To achieve the goals, Blanco believes it is necessary to encourage older people to learn how to handle tools: “We have to make it easier for them.”

The Wi-Fi network, key to identifying the habits of the elderly

An example of these remote control tools in homes is the project that is in the pilot phase in Ponferrada by Aerial and Telefónica. The commercial director of the Canadian company Aerial, Javier González Barahona, explains that, based on the distortions produced by the movements of people in the waves of a Wi-Fi network, and thanks to an artificial intelligence algorithm, the system under development is able to detect, identify, classify and evaluate the types of movements that have occurred, which makes it possible to know how many times a person has gone to the kitchen, the bathroom, what time she goes to bed or what time she gets up, or to know the level of activity in a certain time slot, and even if it has suffered a fall.

New model of multi-service residences

This home care model is complemented by the new residential care model which aims to transform residences into multi-service homes and centres. Thus, the centers are organized in coexistence units, with between 12 and 16 people, and with a series of common services -laundry, dining room, physiotherapy…- which also benefit people who live in their homes, within of the model care network. “This is an ambitious model and a real revolution in social services,” says Family Minister Isabel Blanco. Additionally, Blanco adds that many advancements in homes also need to be incorporated into residential centers, such as advanced telemedicine.