Tunstall unveils first tablet-based supported living applications suite

Tunstall Healthcare will be unveiling its myworld mobile social inclusion platform for supported living schemes at this year’s Housing LIN Extra Care Housing Annual Conference.

Tunstall’s myworld is a suite of mobile applications running on a tablet that provide residents, with no previous experience of technology, a simple and safe means of connecting to their care provider, friends, family and other services through software and secure social media platforms. It has been designed to support independent living by giving users better control over aspects of their daily life, allowing them to schedule appointments, book meals, report property repairs, view upcoming events, and send/receive messages to their carers and families.

With its simple-yet-intuitive touch-screen interface and a range of easy-to-use applications, Tunstall’s myworld is like no other solution on the market, designed as an extension of traditional communication to offer a wealth of fully-supported applications in one packaged product. It provides users with a platform to see their friends or relatives using video software such as Skype, and allows them to become part of community activities to improve social wellbeing.

Simon Arnold, UK and Ireland managing director at Tunstall, said: “Keeping in contact with friends and family is increasingly becoming an issue for older people as they can feel disconnected from their social network. Fear and uncertainty of technology can discourage people from using it, despite the benefits it can provide. According to the charity Age UK, 12% of older people say that they feel trapped in their own home, while 9% admit to feeling cut off from society.

“Providing solutions like myworld addresses these barriers to social inclusion by allowing users to communicate with friends and family whenever suits them, reducing the risk of referrals to additional social services and supporting independent living. This is a very exciting step and has proven hugely successful throughout extensive consumer testing.”

Myworld also supports housing organisations in property management, allowing them to process maintenance and repair requests in a timely manner and offer added revenue streams and valued services to their residents. It can also provide added reassurance to friends and family, and help providers promote instant, efficient and effective communications. With myworld, providers are able to manage multi-site communication, improving productivity and generating cost savings.

Arnold added: “As a provider of services to support independence, it is our priority to give individuals the support they need at different stages of their life. To ensure they get the mos- appropriate care, we’re delivering flexible solutions that offer added reassurance for improved health and wellbeing, while at the same time providing value for money for housing associations. Myworld is an example where users have designed the solution to make it easy to use for everyone.”

While at the event, Tunstall will also demonstrate myclinic, a multi-user telehealth system which enables residents in supported housing to monitor their health more regularly in the comfort of their own surroundings. The system allows users to access their individual records and monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and blood sugar level and store the data securely for review by a medical professional, ensuring a pre-emptive response for early intervention.