More Independence Through Web-Cam Monitoring?
By Dave
Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 18, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS,
INDIANA--ResCare, Inc., one of the largest providers of residential services
for people with disabilities, has launched a project that it says will help
people to become or stay more independent while cutting down on the cost of
having paid staff members in their homes.
The initiative, called 'Rest Assured', uses Internet-based technology
such as Web-cameras, sensors, microphones, speakers, personal emergency
response pendants, and temperature detectors to allow people in group homes,
for instance, to be monitored from miles away.
The system has already been in use in eight homes across Indiana, with
one ResCare employee monitoring several individuals from one location. If the
employee needs to direct the resident, he or she can interact in "real time"
through the system's speakers.
ResCare hopes the monitoring system can be spread to more facilities in
Indiana and across the country. It is also planning to make the technology
available to seniors and others who do not want to move to nursing homes.
Related:
Press release:
ResCare Partners Offer Telecare System (ResCare)
DISCUSSION BOARD TOPIC: Long Distance Monitoring: Would you feel
safer?
Tell us what do you think? Are technologies like 'Rest Assured'
the answer to independence and safety for people with disabilities, at a lower
financial cost? Or do they amount to an invasion of privacy, a kind of "Big
Brother" with opportunities for abuse?
Discuss it with other Inclusion
Daily Express readers here:
http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily
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with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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