The Future Housing Lab approach to social housing and assisted living

How housing associations can benefit from fresh thinking about smart sensor tech and changing healthcare needs

“Housing is healthcare.”

It’s a common refrain among leaders working on public health issues, ranging from substance abuse, ageism, community fracture, education inequality, loneliness and safeguarding to obesity and food insecurity.

In fact, we believe that it’s impossible to separate the future of social housing from the wider challenges around how our society will care for emerging healthcare needs. And that’s especially true when it comes to the needs of our ageing population.

The good news is that forward-thinking housing associations are well placed to tackle these problems and deliver more social impact in the process.

Mapping the “Problem Ecosystem”

In the UK alone, there are now over 15.3 million people aged 60 and above — a figure that is expected to double by 2030. By 2020, elderly people will outnumber children for the first time in history.

What’s more, the elderly are staying at home longer. Nine of every 10 older adults tell us they plan to stay in their current homes until someone drags them out.

At the same time, health and social care models are changing in response to three major trends:

• Health needs are shifting globally towards “lifestyle disease”. In the future, healthcare will be less about recovery from acute illness and more about prevention and rejuvenation: a shift from reactive to pro-active care.
• Poor mental wellbeing and isolation are on the increase — and people living in low quality housing also suffer disproportionately poor health outcomes.
• Social care infrastructure is under pressure, with a £25 billion funding gap facing adult social care in 2019/20

Today, the healthcare system generally treats people when they fall ill. But this care model will not be sufficient to meet the health needs of a growing, diverse and ageing population with high rates of chronic diseases, obesity and mental health problems. 21st century healthcare will need to deliver care that meets the health needs of today and focuses more on preventing illness and supporting individuals in maintaining active, productive and healthy lifestyles.

What’s this got to do with social housing?

Put simply, more elderly people and earlier diagnosis of health conditions is creating an ever-growing need for healthcare outside the home. However, with healthcare budgets being slashed across Europe, there is not enough space for patients to spend time in hospital.

The question is then: how can we use technology to provide the same healthcare within the home?

There will always be cases where patients really do need domiciliary care or to live in a care home. However, there are many cases where people are still very capable of living on their own, but just need to be monitored to make sure they are still living a comfortable and healthy lifestyle.

If we are able to remotely monitor people in their own homes, then there is no longer a need for non-critical patients to be kept in hospital for days on end. This has the added benefit of keeping people active in their communities and at lower risk of social isolation.

The opportunities for housing associations are then:

• How can we use technology to promote safety and deliver safeguarding through unobtrusive monitoring and data analytics that provide potentially life-saving care, as well as peace of mind for family and loved ones?
• More widely, how can we make practical interventions that keep the elderly independent and active, and allow people to build and participate in communities and shared services?

By adapting its approach in order to help blend healthcare into the home, the social housing sector can thus reinvent and reinvigorate its core mission and purpose. Answering these questions effectively, however, requires us to take a holistic view of tenants’ housing and healthcare needs, rooted in a people-centred approach to technology strategy.

A people-centred approach

At Future Housing Lab, we believe a people-centred approach to assisted living would focus on three core human needs: connectivity, activity and safety.

People need community, activity and mobility as key components for a higher quality of life. The research shows staying in your own home provides safety, mental health benefits and helps community integration.

Elderly don’t want to feel excluded — the saddest thing in people’s lives is loneliness. They want to enjoy their life in their home, to feel safe, and to have control over it.

For this very reason, any tech-enabled assisted living solution must strike a balance between monitoring for safety and respecting privacy, and be built on a foundation of trust and communication between the housing association, the tenant and their loved ones.

How smart tech can make homes support health

There are a number of ways that social landlords can weave in light-touch, unobtrusive smart sensors that will support tenants’ healthcare needs:

• Presence detection sensors: A device that monitors movement e.g. has someone who usually sits in the living room, moved into that room? If not, a family member or neighbour could be alerted to check that they are okay.
• Door sensors: If a patient with Alzheimer’s or dementia doesn’t usually leave the house on their own, you can use a door sensor to monitor whether the door has been opened (and closed). This sensor would also work as a window sensor to check if it is open or closed and used as an extra layer of security in the home.
• Vibration sensors: How often is someone moving? Has an individual got out of bed in a morning or do they have a problem and need some assistance?
• Temperature and humidity sensors: As people get older, they often become creatures of habit e.g. having a coffee at 8am every morning. By adding a humidity sensor near the kettle, you can monitor whether the kettle has been used and therefore make an assumption that the individual has had their usual cup of coffee.
• Water leak sensors: These can alert you if a bath has overflowed.
• “Current clamps”: These allow you to check which appliances are being used.

All of these sensors are available as wireless and battery-less devices, allowing an easy retrofit installation, requiring no maintenance and ensuring the reliability that is a must for any health monitoring system.

By connecting all of these devices to a gateway using radio technology protocols, all key data can be pushed to a cloud platform.

Family, neighbours and healthcare professionals can then be granted different levels of access, allowing them to remotely “check in” on vulnerable residents. The cloud platform could also send out alerts via an app if there is data that suggests a problem or emergency situation.

Blending home and healthcare

The health and wellbeing of our loved ones will always be incredibly important. A solution that can help improve a loved one’s quality of life is likely to be considered by many, especially if it can help them stay in their own home for longer.

The cost of a gateway and sensor devices will be a small fraction of the cost of a care home or of domiciliary care. Tech solutions can also be blended with traditional domiciliary care, to create a health and social arrangement that gives the resident the best possible balance of care and freedom.

And of course, the need for healthcare and assisted living solutions is by no means only for the over-60s. There is a vast array of different medical conditions that require some form o extra monitoring or assistance, especially for those people that want to remain independent and in their own homes.

That’s why we believe that this near-invisible tech will be the bedrock of preventive healthcare in the future — and why housing associations are perfectly placed to adopt pioneering approaches to blending health and home.

The House is lead partner of Future Housing Lab, an initiative to help housing associations transform housing for the better through innovative cultures, clever problem-solving and people-centred tech strategy. To find out more about how we could help you, call us on 01225 780000 or email graham@thehouse.co.uk.