Three ideas:

1. A Web application for care assistants to fill out information on a clients that friends and family can access
2. Books to explain life with a disabled sibling
3. A digital information system

Care system for communication between staff and family

Whilst working in care homes I came across an issue of having a folder for each client that needed to be updated constantly as you carried out tasks within the home. If you have 10 clients that day then you need to carry 10 folders to update them. The mass amount of paperwork was overwhelming and the writing could often be illegible. Another issue is that if a file was lost then the record on that client is lost. My idea to combat this issue was to create a web application for care homes that allows care assistants to enter the information into a digital system to save a vast amount of paperwork and keep all records in a secure place.

Families and friends can struggle to get the information that they want as they need to find a care assistant or a nurse to tell them what they need to know. This can often lead to frustration for the families, as well as the care assistants and nurses that are already trying to do a lot within strict timeframes. If the information was available in a web application then family and friends could logon and see the information about the client. Often even if the family or friends see the folders on the clients they might not make sense to them due to the wording or the writing being illegible. A digital system could mean that information can be recorded clearly and in a way that others can read and understand.

As it is a web application and not an app I was considering the ability to email or text notifications to the friends and family regarding an option that they have selected. An example of this would be that they only want notified if they need anything brought or if any incidents had happened such as falls. Others may want updates on what they have eaten. This means that the system can be customised to suit the family and friends needs.

I looked at the idea of creating the system as an app, although this would require different apps for iOS and Android. As the target audience of the system would vary then an app wouldn’t be the best option. As technology develops it would be good to have an app so that a notification would appear on the device such as a phone or watch, although this is not suitable for the current target audience. Currently the web application being accessible from any device would be better suited.

The system could be used for both care within a nursing home and care in the community. Care assistants could update records using a phone or tablet to carryout care in the community and in a home setting there could be tablets placed on the walls, or each care assistant could have a tablet or device that they use.

I believe that technology could improve working conditions for care assistants and nurses, create more time to be spend with clients and drastically improve communication with family and friends. Technology has become part of most job roles, yet care seems to still be running a paper-based system. There has been research into the future of carehomes and I feel that a system like this is a step in the direction of what is needed.

Examples of what the system could show:

• What his activities for the day are
• What they ate/what time/did they finish it
• How did they sleep
• Any creams are applied
• Medication was given
• Changes in medication
• Pads are changed
• If he needs anything brought up, e.g. shower gel or new clothing
• Update my contact details
• Notification if they are unwell
• Seizures
• General mood
• Any incidents that have

What are the pros and cons?

Pros

• I know a lot about care homes and the information I would like to have as a family member
• I think it is something that would be useful
• I have worked with a web application in my placement
• I have links with a lot of care assistants and nurses to get feedback and information on what they would fine useful
• Through my time working in care homes I have seen a system in place and know that it would need drastically improved

Cons

• Going to be hard to make
• There are similar systems available
• It is handling personal information about people
• What if family and friends are not good with technology
• Care assistants and nurses may not want to adapt to a new system

How it will be built

The system will be a web application that will be responsive to work with any device. The idea behind this is that if it was to be put into care in the community then they could use mobile phones to submit the information on the clients, although if it was in a care home maybe it would be tablets or a desktop computer that they would enter the information into.

Ruby on Rails and HTML will be used to develop the web application as the use of Gems means that it will be easier to build. SCSS will be used to handle the styles to allow changes to be made quickly and easily. jQuery and Javascript might be needed for various features, such as menus and any animation that CSS animation isn’t capable of doing.

I am planning on developing part of the system, although not building all the features that I would like as this is a large idea and I know it would be close to impossible to develop it all within the short time scale. I would like to learn more about Ruby on Rails and have completed the Udemy course and have started a Treehouse course on Ruby on Rails so I feel that I should hopefully be capable of making part of the web application.

Target Audience

The target audience for this web application would be three different groups of people:

• Nurses within the care home. The age ranges for nurses would be 21-55.
• Care assistants. The age range for care assistants would be 18-55
• The clients family, and potentially friends. The age range for the family and friends would be 45-60.

What is the business model?

This web application would be offered as a premium service for the home. It could come as two separate parts, you could purchase the ability for only nurses and care assistants to record information onto the web application that can be used to get rid of the paper based system within a care environment. Then you could purchase the ability to allow family to access the information. This could be a feature that the care home pays for and then family could pay a monthly subscription to access the web application, or the care home could offer this as part of their care package.

Competitors?

• Sekoia Care
• Caredocs
• Lnt Software
• Mede Care
• Care Control Systems
• Autumn Care
• Storii Care
• Every Life Technologies

A series of digital books explaining life with a disabled sibling

My brother is disabled and growing up my mum struggled to explain to me why he would always need more attention and couldn’t find a way to communicate how I am feeling and why things are the way they are. It is difficult to explain to children why their disabled sibling will get special treatment and often this can lead to the sibling feeling that they are not as important. I had the idea to create various stories combating the issues that come with having a disabled sibling. Some of the story ideas are:

Explaining your siblings disability

I am now 24 and I can explain my brother’s disability to anyone, from an adult to a child in terms that they understand. When I was younger this was very difficult and often people don’t know how to explain to others what a disability is. A book that explains to someone what it means to have a disability would be useful.

Understanding why they need more attention

When someone is disabled they need a lot of attention and a lot of care. Often as a sibling this meant that less time was available for you. This leads to feeling less important and causes jealously and resentment, yet you know it is wrong to feel this emotions you cannot help feel less important. I think this is a massive issue that needs to be addressed to allow siblings to understand that they are just as important and loved.

Dealing with embarrassment

Often people with disabilities can bring attention as people will look if things happen. For example my brother aspirates, meaning that unlike us when we swallow it goes into his lungs and not into his stomach. He also cannot cough to get things up and we need to use a suction machine. This can happen when we are out and we need to deal with it no matter where we are. I understand this now, but as a child I would have struggled to deal with the “scene” that was happening and people looking.

Having a disabled sibling can impact your own life, and often people focus on the child with the disability and forget how difficult it can be for the sibling to understand. There are various articles explaining what it is like to grow up with a disabled sibling:

• Siblings of Disabled Have Their Own Troubles
• When a sibling is disabled
• Siblings under stress

What are the pros and cons?

Pros

• This is something I am very passionate about
• I like the idea of focusing on illustration and character development
• It would be a fun project to work on
• I believe this is a real issue that needs addressed

Cons

• Do families understand this is an issue?
• It is a sensitive topic to discuss
• Getting the information from children – I have links with people my age with disabled siblings, but not children
• There is not a big market

How it will be built

This will be built as an ePub and contain a lot of illustration. There’s a lot of resources on creating eBooks. I have experience illustrating and would love to develop my skills further. I also thought it would be good to have a website that explains the benefits of the books to parents that also contained a social media aspect to allow children to see that there is a lot of other children with a disabled sibling, even if it this is just a feed of images of people with their books. I would make touch points for the books, such as stickers and run competitions to let children design the characters to create more of a community feel to the books. Talking to people in a similar situation as you can make a massive difference.

Illustrator and photoshop would be used to create the illustrations for the books and a Wacom Cintiq to draw the illustrations. I have all of the software and the graphics tablet already.

Target Audience

The target audience for this project would be children aged 6-9. The idea behind this is to address the issue from a young age so that they understand their siblings disability and their role within the family.

What is the business model?

My idea was to charge a small fee per book and the website would be free. I want to make the costs as little as possible and donate a percentage of the money made to Friends of Drumross, which is a charity set up by the adult day centre that my brother attends. I feel this project would be a way to give back to the centre that allows my family to get a break, my dad to work and my mum to have time to herself.

A Digital Information System

My brother attends a day centre and they make books that tell you about someone in plain English so that if anything happened they would have all the information that they need about the person. These are digital books that are kept in their bags. The issue with this is that things are spilt over them, they aren’t put back in the bag and as they are printed they are not always kept up to date as when a change is made it requires you to reprint the book or the specific pages. Not only is this a hassle but it is costly to constantly print updates for the books, yet if they are not kept up-to-date it is very dangerous.

My idea was to create a web application that allows you to store all the information on a person in a nicely designed and easy to read way. This system will be designed with icons for various medical conditions and information so that you can see at a glance about the person. People will have accounts that allow them to update the information instantly and upload images to keep the profile up to date. Family will be able to go on and see the information to ensure that it is updated at all times. Often the information can need updates on a weekly basis if someone is taking seizures you need to add their most recent.

This is the information that the books contain:

• Clients name and photo
• Eating and drinking, are they nil by mouth? Do they require mashed food? Do they use thickener
• About the client, they enjoy singing, they like music, they use a wheelchair to get about
• What you need to know, they have epilepsy, when their last seizure was, what they are allergic to
• Medications that they are on
• Feeding regimen, times they eat and what they eat
• Do they require special sleeping conditions, padding around the bed, lights on or off
• How they communicate, can they talk, are they able to read and write?
• How you communicate with them, they can hear, you need to write it down or use pictures
• About their family, mum and dad as well as siblings, grandparents and any pets
• What they dislike, doesn’t like loud noises, doesn’t like crowds
• Contact information, this can be doctors and family

What are the pros and cons?

Pros

• I have a lot of information on the topic
• I know what would be useful to know as a care assistant and as a family member of someone disabled
• This system would be useful for care homes as often agency staff are in and they don’t know about clients so they could find out the important information very quickly. (I know a lot about this as I was an agency care assistant)
• I have good links to the day centre to get feedback and to gather information about what would be useful for the staff

Cons

• It could be difficult to build
• It is handling personal information about people
• It would require training for people to be able to use it

How it will be built

The system will be a web application that will be responsive to work with any device. This enables people to access the application from any device. I feel that if it was an app then it would require people to own a phone or tablet and some families may only have a desktop computer if they want to see what they have stored on a client. The information that you need to enter could be lengthily and a desktop or laptop might be used to make inputting the information easier.

Ruby on Rails and HTML will be used to develop the web application as the use of Gems means that it will be easier to build. SCSS will be used to handle the styles to allow changes to be made quickly and easily. jQuery and Javascript might be needed for various features, such as menus and any animation that CSS animation isn’t capable of doing. I would also create various icons using illustrator and mockup the screen designs using sketch.

I am planning on developing the web application. I would like to learn more about Ruby on Rails and have completed the Udemy course and have started a Treehouse course on Ruby on Rails so I feel that I would be able to make the system.

Target Audience

The target audience for this web application would be two different groups of people:

• Care staff, e.g. care assistants, nurses, doctors, physiotherapists. The age ranges for care staff would be 21-55.
• The clients family, and potentially friends the age range for the family and friends would be 25-60

What is the Business model?

This would be a system that a care home would need to purchase, it could come as a yearly fee to have a certain amount of accounts, or they could buy the system for the day centre or the home.