Our guest today is Charles Lowe who is the chief executive of Digital Health and Care Alliance (DACA), he is an expert in telehealth and telecare.

Throughout his career he has worked on technologies to support others. He shares with us how he wanted to open people’s eyes to recognise what technology can do to help people and how everybody can become digitally literate.

Growing up, Charles did voluntary work with his mother and saw firsthand the challenges faced by a broad range of people, particularly as they got older.

From a young child Charles had a passion for electronic engineering. In the late 1960s while still at school, he built a computer from scratch and developed a system to automatically open and close his bedroom window. After studying Material Science at Cambridge, he developed electronic solutions for a range of companies.
Over the years Charles has been involved in many initiatives, working with different organisations, to engage people of all ages to embrace digital technology, including “take your grandparent to school day”. He recognises the lives of people caring for their loved ones could be improved through access to computers – allowing them to improve their mental health by continuing to work whilst caring.

At BT he led the development of their intranet and was instrumental in developing the first commercial digital offering from BT, including digitalisation of the police force and local governments departments.

We talk about the huge speed at which new technologies are being introduced, and discuss whether we are actually making the best of them or moving on to new ideas too quickly? He highlights the importance of digital innovations that now allow patients to be monitored in their own homes, speeding up treatment times and reducing the pressures on hospital admissions. He emphasises the knock-on effect that people can remain in their own homes, doctors can focus on people they need to see in person and fewer people need to travel to be treated.

As you’ll hear, Charles believes that with effective implementation of current telecare and telehealth we can make the world a more inclusive place for everybody.

You can email Charles at charles.lowe@dhaca.org.uk

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest on our podcast is Louise Thompson, who has set up the app Myfolks.

She tells us about growing up in a particularly poor area in the west end of Newcastle, in the North East of England. Louise’s first job was at the Freeman Hospital where she was involved in some cardiovascular research that was published in a medical journal. Through this work she managed to gain admission to Northumbria University, where she graduated with a degree in Law.

After gaining an MSc, while working in a senior corporate leadership position in Hampshire, Louise’s parents, who lived in the North East, became ill with dementia. There followed a desperate time, travelling backwards and forwards to support her parents, whilst working full time and managing the family home.

She talks about the issues her parents had, and although not needing personal care, they did need practical and emotional support. This is when she realised that she had to find some help but couldn’t find any.

So, she began to think about creating an app that would connect people who could provide support for those families who couldn’t book ahead and needed it in real time. Then, the app Myfolks was created.

Louise shares the challenges she had from the time taken to set up the app, the cost and the issues of being a solopreneur.

She shares that one in seven of us is now caring while still working, and how it has a disproportionate effect on women in the workforce. In addition, there can be even greater challenges for the smaller number of men who are carers, and the impact it can have on their ‘masculine’ identity and their self-esteem.

She talks about the important need for employers to understand when their employees are struggling with caring responsibilities for their parents, highlighting that it’s not just the pull on their time, but also the emotional strain.

Presently Myfolks is in the North East, Cumbria, St Helens, Warrington, Humberside, Lincolnshire and Sussex. Louise aims to focus on the coastal towns and the outskirts of large cities, because they tend to have a higher population of the elderly, and often have fewer services.

You can contact us at the following:
Louise Thompson: https://www.myfolks.uk/
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Today’s guest is Jules Robinson from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents – ROSPA. Jules is a guest who has an interest and expertise in falls and fall prevention.

Previously having worked in social housing, Jules’ background is in health and safety, and now she is the falls engagement lead at ROSPA. They campaign for better design elements with Safer by Design and Safer Stairs. They also want to educate both the public and professionals, which they are doing through their Fall Fighters campaign.

Jules talks about how falls are a huge problem for everyone, but also about the attitude that falls are almost expected as you get older. In her previous job she was involved in a project looking at the reasons people have falls, and looking at how falls can in fact be prevented. She also talks about how falls can be trivialised, when in fact the consequences of falls can be far more serious for older and vulnerable adults.

We talk about the risk of falls, not only at home, but also in the workplace, and how it is partly through recognising dangerous situations and potential risks of falls due to the environment that people are in. Many people don’t recognise where risks are, and it’s about educating them to be more aware, though obviously in the workplace there are distinct regulations that the employer is responsible for.

Jules also reiterated several times about how fall prevention advice needs to be a person-centred thing, because we all behave and think differently. This was evident when talking about the different reactions people had to wearing lanyards or fall-prevention devices around their necks.

Although falls are something that any of us can have, it is the older people who Jules is particularly hoping to help with her Fall Fighters campaign.

Find out more about RoSPA
RoSPA’s fall prevention hub for general home safety advice on falls:
https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice-and-information/falls-prevention-hub

The fall prevention project in social housing: https://www.trentanddove.org/news/new-research-shows-avoidable-falls-in-the-home-can-be-reduced-by-69-per-cent-891/

And the RoSPA fall prevention toolkit based on the social housing project:
https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice-and-information/falls-prevention-hub/professional-falls-advice/falls-and-their-impact-on-social-housing

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/