During the autumn, the Årsta Home Care group evaluated Abilia's digital cognitive solution CARY Base at the homes of about ten people with Home Care support. Read more about it here.
Home Care in Årsta faces the same challenges as the rest of the country with an aging population where an increasing number of elderly people are expected to stay at home longer with the support of Home Care and there are fewer hands to take care of these elderly people.
We meet Jenny, who has been unit manager for Årsta Home Care group for the past two years. Jenny has over 20 years of experience as a leader and is currently the manager of 25 permanent employees, as well as some monthly and hourly temps. One of the challenges in the business is to have a balanced economy.
The Årsta Home Care group
Today, the Årsta Home Care group helps approximately 180 users, 50 of whom only have help in the form of security alarms. The efforts they make for the users vary a lot over time, and the home service always starts from the users' well-being and meaningful existence. Of course, the well-being of the staff and the fact they should have a pleasant working environment is also very important. Jenny sees that if the staff are happy, so are the users. Continuity is the basis for all.
"I enjoy my job very much because caring for the elderly is close to my heart. It's great fun to be able to participate and contribute to our users here in Årsta Home Care group having a safe and meaningful everyday life," says Jenny.
Creating basic security for the staff is an important part of leadership
Jenny highlights the importance of creating basic security for the staff so that they can enjoy themselves and do a good job, and she points to the following which she sees as contributing to that:
- Education and skills needed to do a good job
- Good introduction
- Who they should call if needed
- Clear leadership, convey the business's goals and how the business works
- Leaders who stay up-to-date, monitor the environment, identify what is new in care and pass it on to the staff
Security and predictability are important for users
During the autumn of 2023, Jenny and her co-workers were offered to test the cognitive solution CARY Base together with about ten users. It is a digital calendar solution that clearly shows the date, time and today's activities. The initiator of the test project was Malin Ljung at Verklighetslabbet.
"When Malin at the Verklighetslab got in touch and asked if we wanted to join in testing CARY Base, I thought it seemed interesting. Security and predictability are very important for the users," says Jenny, who saw that CARY Base could meet that need.
Jenny returns to the predictability which is very important for the users as CARY Base enabled them to prepare for the activity to be carried out before the Home Care staff arrived. She says that many users have found CARY Base to be good and she thinks that participation and security increased when the user had the opportunity to see what will be happening during the day.
Increased participation, security and communication
CARY Base was installed at the homes of about ten users who were allowed to have this calendar clock for two months. A planner in Jenny's team was responsible for all planned interventions being entered into CARY Base, which meant that the users could see which Home Care interventions would take place on the day in question.
A dilemma that often arises is the first visit in the morning when the users can feel a certain insecurity - they do not always know which person from the home service will be coming that day. Therefore, the solution is particularly valuable before the first Home Care visit of the day when the user is already familiar with today's arrangement.
"But the CARY Base is a valuable solution beyond the whole day. Sometimes the users forget who will be coming later and what will happen so then they can search for the information on CARY Base. An example is a user who had prepared himself for a shower before the staff arrived, " says Jenny.
Here, Jenny sees that the solution has contributed to the security of knowing when it will happen and who will come to help.
Read about Marianne, 91 years old, who is one of the users of CARY Base in Årsta Home Care group.
Improved work environment
Many of the staff group have worked for the company for a long time and enjoy themselves in the Årsta Home Care group. Even if the staff have good conditions to perform their job, sometimes something can happen at a user's home that causes them to be late for the next appointment. Jenny reasons that the staff will have a better working environment if the interventions go more smoothly and the users are calmer when they have received information about the intervention via CARY Base. She ensures that the staff are given the opportunity to spend more quality time with the users.
Here you can share the Home Care staff Mama's experience of CARY Base.
Another thing that Jenny notes is that communication is facilitated with CARY Base. "We have several employees who do not speak Swedish as their mother tongue, and in that case CARY Base is an extra help in communication between staff and users.
For further info, please contact us at info@abilia.uk or 01954 281210
About the testbed Verklighetslabbet
The Verklighetslabb (Stockholm, Sweden) has been a unique test bed for research, innovations and working methods since 2017 where products, working methods and services are tested that can contribute to the development of today's and future care for the elderly. It is an arena for co-creation between the elderly, relatives, staff, innovators, students and researchers. The purpose is to offer a realistic development environment with the goal of testing projects with a focus on welfare technology and digitization.
