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small numbers of care staff provide flexible care to groups with unpredictable behaviour. It
highlights both the integral role that intelligent technology can play in managing complex
situations and also the importance of getting these decisions right.

The Use of Telecare and Telehealth in Assisted Living

Telecare
Assisted living requires a range of options to ensure that the people who live in the spaces
are best matched to their potential support needs. Smart technology is one option and tele
(at a distance) care is another.
Any attempt to define telecare is fraught with contradictions. Here the authors try to
demonstrate the wealth and diversity of the various definitions of telecare. One website
definition appears on TelecareAware:

Telecare is the continuous, automatic and remote monitoring of real time emergencies
and lifestyle changes over time in order to manage the risks associated with independent
living. 6

This definition contrasts with the following definition by the Audit Commission (2004):

Telecare describes any service that brings health and social care directly to a user,
generally in their homes, supported by information and communication technology.
It covers social alarms, lifestyle monitoring and telehealth (remote monitoring of vital
signs for diagnosis, assessment and prevention).

A third definition is (Norris, 2002):

Telecare utilises information and communication technologies to transfer medical
information for the diagnosis and therapy of patients in their place of domicile.

A distinct problem with telecare is its lack of a clear definition. Moreover, the defi-
nition of telecare is constantly modifying depending on the author. The first definition
above situates telecare within the social framework, whereas the second situates it clearly
as medically allied, and the third definition sees telecare as solely a medical intervention
transferring medical information. To add to the discussion the UK Department of Health’s
Care Service Improvement Partnership emphasises the remote monitoring aspects of it as
well as its use in reducing admissions in their definition. 7
Whereas for Bradley et al. (2002) telecare is a purely medical allied intervention. This
can be contrasted with Doughty’s (2007) definition of telecare as an umbrella term for

6 http://telecareaware.com/what-is-telecare/.
7 http://thetelecareblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/defining-telecare.html.