Hi,
I thought your readers might be interested in this release about a new telecare gadget on the market for making sure elderly relatives are okay, that some people are using to check up on their lazy teenagers too.
Let me know if you'd like any high res images or more information.
Best regards
Sophie Banks

Loudbird PR

PRESS RELEASE

The telecare gadget that keeps tabs on elderly relatives (and checks up on lazy teenagers too!)
 

A new telecare device on the market that texts family and friends when an elderly or vulnerable person might need help in their home is being used by some exasperated working parents to spy on their lazy teenagers!

The device, SeNCit, consists of a monitor that you pop on the wall in the home of the relative you are worried about, and, if the device does not detect movement within a certain period of time, it will send you a text to say ‘No movement detected at Dad’s/Mum’s this morning’. You can also programme the device to text you if the front door opens when it shouldn’t (for example in the middle of the night) and also if the temperature falls below a certain level, which could be dangerously cold.

Invented by Helen and Mark Bates, who have run a successful business technology company together for ten years, this gadget can mean that some older people, or those with mild dementia, can stay in their own homes for longer, delaying the move into a care home by months or even years, and saving the family thousands of pounds.

And, while a lot of people are using it to keep tabs on their elderly relative’s daily welfare, and give them peace of mind, some other people are finding an altogether different use for the gadget.

Helen Bates says: “We are finding that more and more of our customers who are from the so-called ‘Sandwich’ generation, and have elderly relatives and also teenage children, have been so impressed with the SeNCit functionality that they have bought two devices: one to make sure their elderly mum or dad is okay, and the other to check that their lazy teenagers have gone to college!

"They are secretly installing a SeNCit device in theirown homes too, and setting different parameters so that when they have gone to work, if they receive a text to say there has been no movement in the house they know their son or daughter is still in bed!! They are also setting the front door opening parameters so that they receive a text telling them exactly when their son or daughter left to go to college. Most of the teenagers have no idea how their parents know when they get up and leave the house!”

Social care of the elderly has become something of a hot potato in recent months and, with a report now showing that government spending on elderly social care is falling, and more people are having to foot at least some of the average £26,000 annual bill for living in a UK care home themselves, the SeNCit gadget could be the answer to a lot of people’s prayers – or at least an interim solution.

Local authorities are starting to take notice of this cost-effective system, as their own care budgets are squeezed. Both Dundee City Council and Herefordshire County Council have started installing SeNCit in the houses of its vulnerable residents.

Helen says: “Many people are simply not ready to go into care homes, but need some sort of monitoring, as they are vulnerable on their own. Mark’s great-aunt died following a fall at home which led to her getting hypothermia as she wasn’t discovered for some time. This made us worry more about our own ageing parents and so we invented a device that would allow us to keep tabs on them, from a distance. Everyone wins using SeNCit: they feel independent, and we have peace of mind.”
 

SeNCit is available from www.sendtech.co.uk/SeN-Cit and costs £198 including VAT.

- ENDS –

Notes to Editors:

Press contact: Sophie Banks, Loudbird PR and Communications

sophie@loudbird.co.uk

07815 147073

About SeNCit

In a nutshell, SeNCit is a small, affordable devicethat you pop up on the wall in the individual’s house, that texts friends or relatives when there might be cause for concern, when, for example:

• there is NO movement in the vulnerable person’s home for a certain amount of time, or within certain hours

• the temperature drops below a certain level

• the front door is opened within certain hours.

Local council interest:

In Dundee, the device was installed in the house of an elderly woman in sheltered accommodation, who suffered from dementia and her family were concerned that she may wander out of the house at night time.

In Herefordshire, the council installed SeNCit in the house of a former soldier, who had returned from Afghanistan and was suffering from epilepsy.

Dundee Council have said “their interest in SeNCit is unprecedented”. Slough Council thinks “it’s genius” and Nottingham Council have said “at last someone has thought about what is needed and brought a product to the table that fulfils this”.

How it works:

SeNCit contains a SIM card that can store up to five mobile or landline numbers and the PIR technology that can detect body heat up to 10 metres. Mounted on a wall in a room in the house that the resident has to regularly pass through, often the hall, the alarm will be programmed to detect movement at three key times throughout the day, for example, morning, lunchtime and evening.

What makes SeNCit unique:

• The elderly/vulnerable individual does not have to raise the alarm or remember to wear a device;

• It’s multi-functional, compact and discreet, meaning the elderly/vulnerable individual feels safe but not stigmatised;

• Its running costs can be as low as a few pence a month, so with many councils forced to make cutbacks in their social-care budgets, SeNCit is a cost-effective way of keeping an eye on the most vulnerable members of society;

• It offers ultimate peace of mind for concerned relatives/friends and will, hopefully, help them to avoid late-night dashes to check on their elderly/vulnerable relative or friend

• It will alert the relative or friend if there is a mains power cut, and then again if the back-up battery is running low.

• The service operates on pay as you go or contract, with text costing between 4p and 10p depending on the mobile phone service provider.

As well as detecting lack of movement, SeNCit and SeNCit+ which includes a wireless door sensor also hasa number of other functions, including:

• A thermometer that will detect if the house temperature has dropped below 18C;

• The wireless door sensor device will alert relatives/friends of the vulnerable/elderly individual has wandered out of the house by sending a text message if they open the door;

• The door sensor device can also alert relatives/friends of the vulnerable/elderly individual if a carer has not visited when they were expected to;

• If there is a power cut, SeNCit will send a text message;

• SeNCit can also act as a home-security device and be programmed to alert individuals to movement in a house when a house is unattended.

• Also, if a relative is showing alarming habits – e.g. getting up to go to the toilet more in the night could mean a water infection, which could be

• serious.

Case studies of users of SeNCit - full details available.