Black female graduate creates world-first cultural-matching app for care sector during pandemic
Care receivers can be paired with carer based on religious understanding, cultural food, languages, hair and grooming, holidays etc thanks to AI technology
Maaha Suleiman, social entrepreneur and founder of Care Matched spent the pandemic creating a vital new resource and tool for the care sector from her home in Tower Hamlets.
She is a young, black Muslim woman on a mission to innovate the social care sector as during her Global Health & Social Medicine degree she spotted a big gap in the market.
She has developed a world-first app whichmatches care workers with care receivers using AI technology to deliver culturally-appropriate careso that care receivers can age more comfortably and live a higher quality of life.
Care workers are paired with care receivers based on life experiences, skills, religious understanding, cultural food, languages, hair and grooming, special holidays such as Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah and much more.
According to the 2011 Census, 13% of the UK population identified as belonging to an ethnic minority group and this figure grew to 14.4% from the 2020 Census (CommonsLibrary)* Also, one-fifth of the UK population was aged 65 and over and this increased by 23% in the recent decade. Despite this, until now, there have been no businesses who specialise in culturally matched care (CommonsLibrary).**
Care Matched has just finalised the software development for the application, has finalised beta testing with leading London council.
Care organisations and councils use a bespoke PaaS (platform as a service) tech platform. Below is a short summary of the process:
- Care organisation signs up to Care Matched
- Care workers will set up their profile (fill in experiences, skills, religious understanding, languages, hair and grooming and more)
- Care receiver will set up their profile (fill in the questionnaire regarding cultural and special requests)
- Care receiver connects with their desired care worker
- Both care workers and care receivers can rate their experience and provide feedback
Ms Suleiman says:
"I am delighted to have worked with multiple care sector and charitable organisations, including a London council, Care Quality Commission, Care Innovation Hub and Unltd to name just a few. The organisations have been key in developing our Care Matched technology, which will have a huge impact on the care sector"
A senior member of the Care Quality Commission commented:
"Care matched is very relevant in addressing Regulation 9 and Regulation 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, by providing this culturally-appropriate matching technology to care organisations, Care Matched is ensuring that vulnerable people are receiving the personalised care they're entitled to and live out the rest of their years with dignity"
An executive level social care commissioner says:
"Person centred and user-friendly tech solutions are increasingly important in the care sector, as are products that make it easier for people drawing on social care to find services that match the cultural, language and other characteristics that matter to them. I have been fortunate to monitor the progress of the Care Matched solution since its early days and can say with confidence that it ticks all of those boxes.
Kariba Amachree, Founder & Registered Manager, Pragmatic Health Care services: "I love how simple and sleek the design of the technology is, we'll be using it every day in our agency"
The app launches on January 25th, 2022.
-ENDS-
Ms Suleiman is available for interview.Contact info:
Maaha Suleiman Tel: 07713924059
Email:maaha@carematched.co.uk
Notes to the editors:
- Why Maaha is so passionate about providing culturally matched care - her interest first began while studying the ageing population module in her final year of university and she realised that innovation in the care sector was far behind the NHS.
- How Maaha spotted the gap in the market and validated her idea - her mother also worked as a care worker at the time and would receive calls from her agency asking if she spoke a specific language, based on her appearance. This prompted Maaha to validate her idea by calling 35 care agencies in her home borough of Tower Hamlets to ask if their clients ever request a care worker with a specific cultural understanding. They all replied with 'yes, all the time' - that's when Maaha began working on developing the Care Matched technology
- How Maaha received funding - She needed funding and a team to help develop the technology and after pitching to multiple organisations she eventually received a combined total of £21,900 which enabled her to build the prototype, full technology, website and pay for the marketing.
- The technology build process - the technology was built by a tech investment firm, Maaha found the CEO of this firm on Linkedin and connected with him. He later agreed to act as the Care Matched COO, provide consulting and build the technology and website. The app and web portal took under a year (11 months) to build from the idea phase.
- How the product was tested - Maaha reached out to a senior commissioner of a London council who has helped her build the personal assistant register and trial with him. She also reached out to a domiciliary care agency based in London and trialled the technology with them for a few months.
- Working with the Quality Care Commission - Maaha spoke to 4 senior members of CQC who explained how valuable this technology would be in their new assessment framework and have invited her to speak to their inspectors in the near future. They also connected her to the CEO of a major care planning software company and Skills for Care.
* https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/
ABOUT MAAHA SULEIMAN SHORT BIO
Maaha Suleiman, founder of Care Matched, has developed a world-first app which matches care workers with care receivers using AI technology to deliver culturally-appropriate care, so that care receivers can age more comfortably and live a higher quality of life.
ABOUT MAAHA SULEIMAN LONG BIO
Maaha Suleiman is a London-based social entrepreneur on a mission to revolutionise the care sector. Maaha is the founder of Care Matched Ltd, the first ever Medtech company to culturally match care receivers and care workers based on cultural background, language proficiency, skills and experiences, using artificial intelligence. Her greatest passion is helping people from the BAME community age with dignity and live out the rest of their lives more comfortably.
Maaha is a Global Health & Social Medicine graduate from King's College London, and where she joined the Women in Social Tech growth programme. Maaha's tech excellence and entrepreneurial spirit allowed her to obtain a scholarship with CIEE's Entrepreneur Lab where she refined her knowledge on marketing, sales and finance. Additional accolades include being a finalist in the Care Innovation Challenge, 2019, and being a Peer Reviewer at The Institute of Health Research.
ABOUT CARE MATCHED LTD.
Care Matched was founded in London by Maaha Suleiman in 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The platform provides care organisations and councils with cultural competency training, alongside a PaaS (platform as a service) tech platform which culturally matches care workers with care receivers. It is the first tech-based company with a special focus on catering to the BAME communities by matching care receivers and care workers based on cultural background, language proficiency and other skills and experiences, using artificial intelligence. The company exists to give care providers the technology to make sure everyone receives culturally appropriate, bespoke care. Care Matched has received recognition from a London council, The Care Quality Commission, Unltd, and The Paul Hamlyn Foundation amongst other organisations within the social enterprise and care sector.