technology through them like the old answering machine. If we get no voice response, we’ ll send for emergency assistance. But if we do get a voice response and the client’ s fine, we’ ll just say hello, and have a chat, very social call, and then hang up and then move on.
So these are three great new solutions that we haven’ t had access to up until the last three or four months that we’ ve been testing them.
Besides testing out new devices and systems, what initiatives does the centre support? The initiative is really about training. We have five different sections of the Experience Centre. One of them is training, particularly for other health professionals and other care providers. We offer workshops to other health professionals to come in and actually learn all about the different technologies that are available. And we can share our experiences with those health professionals. We can also support those companies with the technology as well. We have a very good business-to-business relationship with many small to medium-sized care providers who don’ t have accessibility to the technology that we have available. So we will support those guys in the background to deliver this technology to their clients as well.
What drives Feros Care to explore new systems and devices? We’ re totally engaged with technology to support our clients moving forward.
We’ re always looking to what our clients are going to need in the next five years. [ For example ] while we know currently about 80 per cent of our clients over the age of 75 have mobile phones, they traditionally like to text message. We know that many clients or loved ones of ours that are over 70 years of age have a smartphone. So we need to know that, moving forward in the next five years, the technology is going to change dramatically and we need to make sure the solutions we offer our clients are the solutions that best suit the clients’ needs and that the clients are actually comfortable to use.
What future plans does Feros Care have for the hub and also in terms of its engagement with the technology more broadly? The future plans are to continue to develop more solutions and to move into the NDIS space to support clients in disabilities, as well as ageing, because many of our technologies move across both spheres.
The education is probably one of the biggest factors that we are moving forward into, and we’ re also moving into assistive technologies.
So that is another big part of our business where we can actually deploy assistive technologies and other smart assistive technologies. More things like the wheelie-walkers and aids. We can dispatch that nationally through our partnership throughout the country. ■
Managing incontinence in aged care
71 % of aged care clients are incontinent and numbers are set to double by 2030
Watch videos by clinical experts to help manage your clients at continencexchange. org. au / videos or call the National Continence Helpline 1800 33 00 66
Supported by funded by the Australian Government under the National Continence Program. Managed by the Continence Foundation of Australia. agedcareinsite. com. au 35