Family-focused tech for a new generation of care
LONDON: With 85% of working women and 70% of working men caring for an ageing or disabled family member, care is at the centre of many of our lives.
Lookout is a family-focused, digital care management platform designed and developed by Five Good Friends, the first technology enabled, data driven home care provider in Australia.
CEO of Lookout Simon Lockyer, recently delivered a webinar exploring the rising expectations of the home care customer off the back of the recent Royal Commission into the aged care sector.
The Royal Commission made significant recommendations around the use of technology in the aged care industry, and the importance of bringing the needs of the people involved in care to the forefront.
Technology has infiltrated most aspects of life in 2021 and Lookout is determined to meet the technological needs of their customers in the care industry.
Lockyer noted the generational shift in the people who are receiving care and those who are delivering care, and the changes in expectations that have come with that shift.
“There is an increasing desire to age in place… and there is a rising expectation that technology is going to be part of the experience, and part of the solution.”
Lockyer also touched on the effect that COVID-19 has had on care recipients and on digital health, with the large uptake of services like remote care monitoring and telehealth in community care.
“It [COVID-19] has really reinforced the importance and the safety of home. It is where people want to be.” said Lockyer.
Lockyer emphasised the importance of knowing who their customer is and understanding what the technology needs to deliver for them.
“The Royal Commission says ‘the current systems that are supposed to support the aged care sector are either designed to support specific administrative and financial reporting requirements, or are program centric. They are not focused on the person’” said Lockyer.
Lockyer believes that this important statement speaks to the type of technology that needs to be considered.
“This isn’t just about looking for software systems that are designed to roster, to invoice, to report risk… It needs to be a solution that is ultimately going to enable better services,” said Lockyer.
Lookout believes that Informal carers not only enrich the lives of the friends and family members they care for by maintaining their social and community connections, they also play a critical role in reducing the need for formal care.
“The informal carer, the family, the friends, they are the real heroes of our care system in both home care, aged care, and NDIS,” said Lockyer.
One of Lookout’s focuses is to broaden their customer base beyond formal caregivers and care recipients and to include informal carers.
“The customer in the modern world is more than just the person who is receiving care. It is the informal care network; it is the loved ones who want to remain intimately involved in that care and understanding,” said Lockyer.
Acknowledging that friends and families want to know more about care providers and what’s happening when they enter the homes of their loved ones, Lookout recently launched an iOS and Android family and support worker version of the app.
The app contains a number of features including dynamic help plans, shared notebooks and support worker profiles and visitor logs.
“It lets them know who’s in the home, when they’ve arrived, when they’ve checked out, who’s coming, the verifications and the skills of the people that are coming into the home, copies of the care plan, and importantly how fresh those care plans are.”
“This really brings transparency and control to the experience,” said Lockyer.
