Service invents new way to keep people safe
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service has partnered with award-winning home care provider Home Instead Senior Care to keep its clients safer in their homes using a new invention.
The Service has designed a smoke alarm testing stick that will help people check their alarms without having to stand on a stool or step ladder.
Now Caregivers working for Home Instead in Exeter and East Devon are carrying the ‘pip sticks’ on their rounds and use them to test the smoke alarms at clients’ homes when they visit.
Watch Manager Gareth Sydenham, of Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, said: “This device makes it even easier for the care assistants to check that smoke alarms are working. It only takes a few seconds but it can make the difference between life and death in an emergency.”
Home Instead Senior Care provides non-medical care for older people in their own homes in Exeter and East Devon and 125 other locations around the UK.
Director of Home Instead, Mark McGlade, said: “This is a perfect match for us because we focus on the client’s wellbeing and safety as a matter of course during every visit.
“The average length of a typical home care visit in the UK is 18 minutes but at Home Instead our visits are no less than one or two hours because we do what our clients would like us to do, be that home help, personal care, hospital appointments, going shopping or taking them for a pub lunch.”
During the first week that caregivers started using the new devices, one client asked for additional smoke alarms after having them checked. The product has been developed with Exeter-based supplier The Purple Company.
● Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service will be attending an Older Person’s Information Day at Budleigh Salterton Public Hall on 31 May, 12.30-4.30pm, organised by Home Instead. Lots of other community service organisations will also be on hand to provide advice to older people and their families at the free event.
