It is never easy caring for an elderly parent with dementia, especially when you live a three-hour drive away. But Rhona D’Arcy is able to keep an eye on her mother Heather White, 86, despite the distance, thanks to a system of AI monitors in her home.
Heather has vascular dementia but can only afford to have private carers visit briefly twice a day.
To receive more support, she’d need to sell her home and move into care – something the fiercely independent former counsellor is adamant she does not want to do.
Instead, a remote monitoring system checks how often Heather moves between rooms, when she uses the bathroom, whether she’s been using the fridge and kettle, the temperature of the house and when people have been coming in and out the front door.
And because the system uses AI to learn Heather’s normal behaviour, it alerts her daughter if anything is concerning – like if she’s unusually still, goes to the bathroom more than normal or unexpectedly leaves the house. When she gets an alert, Rhona calls Heather, or asks local carers or relatives to check on her.
“I have so much information as to what’s going on which really helps me to communicate with her,” said Rhona. “I know if she’s had a bad night or she hasn’t moved all morning and might be feeling a bit low, so I can call her for a chat.
“And because I can see how many visitors she has had or how much she was up in the night, I can ask her relevant questions which can help prompt her to talk about things she wouldn’t remember otherwise.”
The family were one of the first to test an AI at-home care monitoring system called Lilli, which is now used by 12 councils in England and Wales, including Nottingham City, Medway and Reading. Another 51 local authorities use another AI-powered system called MiiCare, which uses a combination of monitors and an interactive AI speaker.
Across the country, at least two in five adult social care providers are now using these systems to enable care staff to monitor elderly and vulnerable people remotely. The aim is to ensure people in need get help faster, while those with lower needs do not have unnecessary visits and are not moved into residential care too early.
The Labour government is pushing for more areas to take up similar technology via its Better Care Fund, a £9 billion pot for NHS and local authorities to spend on helping people live independently at home. Earlier this year, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting told NHS services and councils to invest in prioritising keeping people out of hospital and care homes for as long as possible.
Economists say remote monitoring technology could save the NHS £1.2bn by 2035, by enabling earlier discharges from hospital and spotting health problems before they require hospital treatment.
Councils have already announced saving thousands using such systems. In Nottingham, for example, installing Lilli systems in 48 homes meant patients discharged from hospital were able to go straight home instead of into respite care, saving the council nearly £54,000.
Medway Council estimated it saved £30,000 a week using the technology, while Reading Borough Council said it had saved 25 per cent for every person receiving care.
By cutting 2,400 hours of routine care visits, an additional 12 people were able to receive care without increasing staff numbers. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “AI-powered monitoring may be able to help older people stay independent and in their own homes for longer.
“This is especially valuable if it frees up care workers to be able to spend more time with older people.” But she stressed it was vital to find “the right balance between intrusion and safety”.
Critics warn that over-stretched councils could use the technology to cut face-to-face care visits. Simon Lord, head of innovation at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Tools like this can be a useful element of a package of care, if suitable for the individual person and their situation, but they shouldn’t replace all face-to-face contact. Even if a person is being monitored and is seen to be safe, they may still be lonely, feeling socially isolated or losing social skills.”
Dr Henry Collingham, an innovation fellow in design at Northumbria University who specialises in dementia, said rising wage bills meant it was likely “under-valued” face-to-face care could be cut, putting elderly people at risk.
“The cornerstone of good care is human connection… The work of carers is often just having a chat and gauging how someone is doing,” he added. “If a carer is being partially replaced by a system which is only looking for one set of flags, there is a risk that completely different warning signs might be missed. Someone may be getting up and opening the fridge as usual, but if their voice has changed or they seem out of spirits, the monitors might not pick up on that.”
But for Rhona, from Farnborough, Hampshire, the AI system gives her reassurance between the monthly trips she makes to see her mother in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
“It doesn’t replace the care, it augments it,” she said. “It is helping me and the carers to support her, but it wouldn’t be enough on its own. But because I can check how she’s doing any time of the day or night, it’s really reassuring. As I can’t just rush up to see her, it gives me peace of mind knowing she’s OK.”
