Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and plates
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: what are social alarms?
- two Social theory and social alarms
- three A critical review of the literature
- four The origins of social alarms
- five Social alarms in England and Wales
- six Social alarms in Scotland
- seven Social alarms in Ireland
- eight Social alarms (PRS) in North America
- nine Social alarms in the rest of the world
- ten Social alarms: international comparisons
- eleven Social alarms and smart homes
- twelve Social alarms, telemedicine and telecare
- thirteen Falls, lifestyle monitoring and dementia care
- fourteen Conclusions
- Appendix A note on methodology
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
four - The origins of social alarms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and plates
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: what are social alarms?
- two Social theory and social alarms
- three A critical review of the literature
- four The origins of social alarms
- five Social alarms in England and Wales
- six Social alarms in Scotland
- seven Social alarms in Ireland
- eight Social alarms (PRS) in North America
- nine Social alarms in the rest of the world
- ten Social alarms: international comparisons
- eleven Social alarms and smart homes
- twelve Social alarms, telemedicine and telecare
- thirteen Falls, lifestyle monitoring and dementia care
- fourteen Conclusions
- Appendix A note on methodology
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Introduction
This chapter documents the evolution of social alarms and discusses their emerging role within the context of housing and social welfare service provision for older people in Great Britain and, to some extent, Ireland. Evident from this discussion are a number of dilemmas and choices that had to be addressed by service providers as social alarm technologies developed and were marketed. At the same time social policy and, notably, housing policy frameworks relating to older people were changing.
The key to the latter lay in sheltered housing and the then emerging role of the warden. Associated with this were a number of questions about the relationship between wardens and the services they provided to the older people living in sheltered housing schemes. The technologies and their use clearly had an impact on this by providing a means and a medium of communication that was previously unavailable.
That housing policy for older people took this course can be partly explained by long-standing concerns at that time about the inadequacy of residential care. Such concerns were particularly highlighted in the work of Townsend (1962). An irony, however, is that in seeking to develop sheltered housing as an alternative, key features of residential care were reintroduced as the sheltered housing model became more clearly defined. Call systems can be seen as having helped to consolidate such definition.
Bells and buzzers
The broad definition of social alarms adopted in this book, that is including call systems, makes it impossible to point to their origin with any precision. In Great Britain, however, and as noted in Chapter One, the widespread use of such technologies followed the development of sheltered housing and the adoption of what were to become known as social alarms as a standard feature to link individual residents to a responder living elsewhere in the scheme. In the earliest period of sheltered housing this responder would have been as likely to be an active older resident as a warden.
Originally the alarms used in Great Britain were simply bells and buzzers activated by switches or push buttons and individually wired to a panel in the responder’s dwelling.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Social Alarms to TelecareOlder People's Services in Transition, pp. 55 - 76Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2003