Created by retirement village, aged care and home care provider Bolton Clarke and a team of researchers from RMIT, the wearable CaTPin allows staff at Bolton Clarke to monitor those clients who may be at risk of loneliness.
Each client is given a beautifully designed pin to wear that is equipped with technology which monitors their baseline conversations and word count.
If the pin detects not enough words are being spoken, staff will notify families and neighbours via text or alert community visitors’ schemes to arrange a visit.
Of course, the pin is not the same as living in a retirement village where you would have access to emergency support services and a community of neighbours.
Winning technology
But we can see the benefits for those who are either socially or geographically isolated.
Others can too. The technology has just won the Telstra Designing for Aging Well Challenge which awards innovative thinking in design for Australia’s older community.
Bolton Clarke says the prize money will now go towards developing a prototype that will be available to their clients before being rolled out to the wider community.
With loneliness emerging as one of our biggest health problems as we age, being linked to conditions including high blood pressure and depression, it’s a worthy winner.
