IoT & Independent Living Report- Cardiff University

AIM: To pilot digital solutions enabling individuals with care needs to live safely and independently at home.

At the same time, there are still areas where connectivity to digital networks precludes access to any beneficial opportunities.

For the individual to benefit from digital technologies there must be:

• Digital connectivity/network capability within the home

• Informed knowledge of the digital technologies that are available, and how they can be installed and operated.

• The ability to assess need and correlate these needs to digital technology capabilities

Many individuals live at home in isolation, with a range of health or mobility challenges. With predictions for an increasingly older population, the financial pressures on care and support will increase. With reducing financial resources being available, this will necessarily have a negative impact on these protected characteristics.

Digital technologies may themselves be able improve people’s well-being, and at the same time offer cost benefits that may enable resources to support the increasing demand.

Head of Integrated Services Adult Services, Julie Boothroyd has the following endorsement to the project.

“The ability to use digital technology to support those vulnerable individuals who live at home, many socially isolated, has been our dream for many years. Now, due to the technology advancements, we will embrace these new technical challenges and realise their benefits to deliver a superior 21^st Century service that all our vulnerable citizens deserve.”