Technical Report Draft 1

Background

On average, about one in four people above the age of 65 in Singapore will suffer a fall, said doctors. Of those who fell, two-thirds had a single fall and one-third had recurrent falls. In summary, the risk of falling among the elderly is relatively high. Most of these falls happen at home and often go unnoticed as they live alone. While some of these falls will be of minor consequence to the elderly, others, however, will incapacitate and reduce their ability to function independently during their everyday lives. Falls in the elderly have essentially become a significant cause of injury, disability and even death. It is understood that many of these falls are potentially preventable. While necessary precautions have taken place, accidents can still happen. This can be improved if the victims are able to get the medical attention shortly after the fall. This will require their caregivers to be alerted immediately so that necessary response can take place. Therefore, a device which automatically detects a fall and sends out a distress SMS to their caregivers can be the way forward to this problem. When the user is distress, the device worn have a panic button that the user can operate to notify their caregivers. This allows the caregivers to react and possibly prevent disability and even death of the elderly. Although there is a wide variety of such devices in the market, not all elderly who requires it gets to benefit from this technology. The high fall rates among elderly and the fact that elderly do not get the assistance they need immediately, highlight the need for these devices to be readily available for them.  

Problem statement

An emergency alert device should be implemented for the elderly, to ensure that they are safe in the case of an actual emergency.

Majority of the elderly who spend most of their time at home alone do not have any form of emergency alert system. Without it, the elderly will continue to be at risk of not getting emergency attention or help in times of desperate need.

Possible reasons why emergency alert systems are not widely used could be due to their high costs, complete unawareness of the product, or the that they do not feel the need to own one.

An emergency alert device sends distress signals to their caregivers or nearby hospitals when the device detects a fall, or if the signal is sent directly from the elderly. This will allow the elderly to receive medical attention promptly.

Purpose statement

The purpose of this proposal is to firstly explore the different types of emergency alert systems in the market, and select the optimal system. The selected alert system will be recommended to Ministry of Social and Family Development, and to propose the idea of distributing said emergency alert system to households with elderly.

The idea is implemented in hopes of minimising the rate of fatal accidents occurring in households when the elderly are alone in the house.

2.6 Proposed Solution

The proposed solution is to distribute an emergency alert device in a wearable form to all elderly living alone. This is to ensure that the elderly is always equipped with the device, so that they are able to call for help during emergencies as they live alone with no one to assist them. The emergency alert device makes use of accelerometer and gyroscope which can detect between a normal activity and an actual fall to prevent false alarm. The emergency alert device that Eldervists have chosen is from GuarDay which costs SGD $399.

Figure Z. GuarDay SOS and Fall Detection Device

Before implementing the device, there are a few plan of action to achieve the ideal situation. The device should be on a pilot program on a few groups of elderly and occasionally get feedbacks from them to review and improve in terms of the medical attention that will be provided. Meanwhile, caregivers should be equipped with the necessary skills such as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Automated External Defibrillator (AED), emergency numbers, and navigation to the elderly’s home.

2.6.1 Considerations

The emergency alert device has to meet a few criteria which are automatic alerting, Global Positioning System (GPS), an emergency button, long battery life, and be waterproof.

When a fall is detected, an alert and a text message will be transmitted to the caregiver automatically while the GPS detects the elderly’s location. GuarDay’s device allows numerous phone numbers to be pre-nominated into the system, and the first number will be the most important number.

The emergency button should provided to allow the elderly to call for help when they do not feel well or if something is wrong. Similarly, GuarDay’s device will call and text message the pre-nominated numbers.

The device also requires a long battery life as it is meant to alert the caregivers on the elderly’s emergencies. GuarDay’s device has a battery life of up to 15 days with easy charging.

The device should also be waterproof as most accidents happen in the bathroom where the floor is wet and slippery. GuarDay’s device is waterproof in the shower.

2.6.2 Technical Specifications

2.6.3 Benefits of Proposed Solution

The elderly will be able to receive assistance faster with the emergency alert device. GuarDay works on 89 countries, making it convenient for family members who are going overseas or living abroad to be notified of any emergencies. GuarDay can also alert the elderly’s private clinic.

2.6.4 Drawbacks of Proposed Solution

Firstly, on the elderly’s part, the elderly may forget to wear the device as it needs to be removed and charged when the battery runs out. Hence, when accidents occurs, no alerts will be transmitted to the caregivers. Since the device is small in size, the chances of losing it is high. Some elderly may also refuse to use the device to get assistance as they find that they are being a burden. Some elderly may not know how to use the device even after demonstrating.

Secondly, maintenance of the device have to be conducted regularly to ensure that it is in good working condition. An example of the problems that may occur with the device is long response time to the caregivers. Regular maintenance would mean that visits to the elderly have to be made. During the visits, caregivers may come along and communicate with the elderly. However, it may be an inconvenience to the elderly as some of them do not like to be disturbed.

Thirdly, caregivers are needed to take care of these elderly who live alone. Their main task will

be to act on the SMS alerts.

2.7 Alternative Solution

An alternative solution would be a wireless motion sensor whereby an alert will be sound when no movement is detected for an unusually long time, which could mean something has happened that caused the elderly to not move. Eldervists have chosen the Elderly Monitoring System (EMS) which was developed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic staff and students. The EMS monitors the elderly’s daily activities at home using wireless sensor networks that will alert the caregiver through text message when no movement is detected for a period of time.

2.7.1 Benefits of Alternative Solution

The EMS is a non-contact, non-invasive and low cost methodology system which is able to monitor the elderly in real time and provide timely alert. There is no need for the elderly to wear or press any device button to alert the caregivers.

2.7.2 Limitations of Alternative Solution

A household will require more than one EMS as there are many rooms, which may be expensive. Similar to GuarDay’s SOS and Fall Detection Device, the EMS requires regular maintenance to ensure that it is in good working condition to detect motion of the elderly.

2.8 Solution implementation

The proposed solution would be to promote the selected emergency alert system to households with elderly living in them.

The system can be distributed in many ways. However, we recommend for the alert systems to be distributed during an awareness event.

Local GRC should conduct said awareness event in their respective areas, with booths for free food and games. The focus of the event should be to spread the awareness of the importance of the emergency alert system, the benefits they will bring, and the risks elderly are exposed to if they do not own one. There will be booths that specialises in selling the devices, and households with elderly will be able to purchase the alert system at a highly subsidised rate. There would also be professionals present to promote the product, and explain how they work to the families or the elderly.

The emergency alert device should be given free of charge to families with income below a certain percentage, and to elderly who are staying alone. Volunteers should be dispatched to individual households that houses elderly who stay alone, or elderly with disabilities, to distribute and explain the emergency alert systems to them.

Table X (Please refer to the appendix) shows the resident population of elderly, aged 60 and over. This will give an estimation of how much emergency alert devices to purchase, and the numbers to accurately divide the devices throughout the island. figure aims to present an image of how households with elderly are distributed across the island, in hopes of identifying the areas that require the most quantity of the alert device, and the scale of their awareness events.

Figure Y (Please refer to the appendix) is a visual representation of the distribution of elderly across the island.

2.8.1

Benefits

As mention the problem statement, one of the prominent reason why elderly do not wish the purchase an emergency alert system, is due to the high cost, and they do not feel that it is worth their money. Furthermore, elderly do not own the alert system is because they do not know the product exist, or they do not feel that there is a need for it.

The awareness event eliminates the problems mentioned above. Since the devices are sold at a subsidised rate, it would become much affordable for family to afford them. Moreover, the aims of the event is the primary spread awareness of the alert device, and the benefits that comes with it.

With emergency alert system present in the homes of elderly, there would be no risk of fatal injuries, or injuries that goes unattended when elderly were to fall or injure themselves when they are alone at home. The alert system will automatically contact their kin or medical professionals to the scene to assist them, to prevent escalation of the problem.

2.8.2

Drawbacks

The drawback of the proposal, could be the possibility that the awareness event does not reach out wide enough to the elderly. Possible reasons why could be elderly not being aware that the event is ongoing, or are not interested in the event.