Community On-Line Support Service
Summary
COLSS was initially set up and funded from the SIPS (Social Inclusion Partnership) programme. With this funding COLSS was able to combine the benefits of their morning call service with the 24 hour alarm and monitoring service provided by Hanover Telecare, thereby providing both a passive and active monitoring process to its clients. The combined efforts of COLSS and Hanover Telecare maximises client awareness to the programme, which is free to SIPS clients, some of whom have been with the service for over 10 years.
How the Programme Works
Reactive Element: Community Alarm with Pendant
Clients are provided with a pendant and a base alarm unit that is connected to their standard home telephone. If they require help at any time of the day or night they simply press the button on the pendant and they will be connected to the 24-hour response service offering personal protection 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Proactive Element: The Morning Call
If a client forgets to wear their pendant alarm or falls or takes ill and cannot press the alarm button to summon help, the certainty of the COLSS daily Morning Call provides double reassurance. Using a fully computerised, custom designed system, staff contact each client at a pre-determined time every morning. The system shows, on screen, the details for each individual client. This could include: details of any illness, circumstances, doctor's details, nominated contact details, special notes to remind client what day it is or of a family birthday.
If the operator is unable to make contact on the first call, another attempt will be made within the hour. If there is still no reply the client's nominated contact is alerted and asked to check on the client. If a client is going out or does not need a call on a particular day, they simply inform the morning caller or leave a message on the 24-hour answering machine.
The strength of the approach lies in establishing a daily rapport with the clients which means that operators are often able to detect if something is amiss, when talking with a client, even if the client themselves do not initially offer the information. Very often a kindly prompt such as, "are you sure that everything is alright?" can lead to an unburdening and to solutions that can be speedily effected.
Contact information