According to the Campaign to End Loneliness over 9 million people say they are often or are always lonely. The impact of loneliness on both physical and mental health is well documented and is fast becoming one of the single biggest challenges for both health and social care. Whilst predominantly associated with older people, loneliness can affect any age group, particularly those with physical and/or mental disability.
DefProc Engineering understands the impact social isolation can have and has considered how digital technology can play a role in combating loneliness. Can the digital revolution provide new opportunities for technology to play a key role in tackling social care issues? DefProc believe that it can and have developed a solution called Push to Talk.
Push to Talk is a simple yet effective device. Easy to install within the home the unit works using community 5G wireless and the LoRaWAN gateway technology and works with both landline and mobile handsets. Once installed if the service user wants to talk to someone they simply press\apply pressure the top of the unit and they will be connected to someone within a ‘community’ who also wants to talk and has pressed their unit.
The term ‘community’ refers to the client groups for the purpose of the 5G pilot. The groups include people with learning difficulty, carers and isolated individuals.
Key Features and Benefits of the Push to Talk Unit include:
- Discreet unit, in white and is no bigger than a small clock.
- It is designed to take into account dexterity impairments
- Push to talk is available for 1 hour per day with flexible use of talk time feature
- Designed as a social network – push to talk will connect the caller to another like- minded user
- Push to Talk plugs into standard power supply
- Works with both landlines and mobiles devices
- Separate buttons for the carer and cared for individual where appropriate
- Maximum 30 second delay from push to talk (actual connection with another ‘community’ member
- Service users will have an introduction to all the key features including the light sequences on the unit to ensure they are both confident and comfortable to use it.
- Features a contact number on the base of the unit for and concerns or fault reporting
- Service provided 9am to 6pm daily
