Futuristic aged care facility paving the way with floor sensor technology

It is one of the great risks of getting old.

A slip in the shower, or a tumble out of bed, is a far more dangerous scenario as one ages. And recovering from a fall can take months, if ever.

As Australia’s population gets greyer, aged care facilities are looking at the next generation of help they can offer.

On the site of the old Drummoyne Boys High School, aged care provider Scalabrini has implemented two contemporary elements to their new development the Village, utilising design and technology.

Each level is broken into a series of what the developer calls a “casa”, Italian for home; 12 to 14 residents living adjacent to a communal space.

Their rooms flow straight into an area featuring a kitchen, lounge areas, and outdoors patios. Giving the feel of home, rather than living off a corridor and accessing living areas, generally, from another walkway.

Each door is shaded differently from the next, to aid those with diminishing memories, and infrastructure such as nurses’ stations, have been discreetly placed in back of house.

It has also created apartments for independent living, when a couple wants to stay living together, but the medical needs of one may be more strident than the other.

Access to a home visiting doctor, or an ambulance if the need is greater, is one phone button away to a 24 hour concierge on standby for such an event.

But by far the most intriguing feature of the new development are the sensors that are built into the floor of each room in the Village’s “Casas”.

More than two million dollars worth of electronics have been embedded during construction, that register when a resident walks into a room.

Each footfall can be seen in a control room, again, monitored constantly.

The sensors are able to delineate between living and inanimate objects, and should a resident trip or fall, the pressure of their body on the floor triggers an alarm that alerts all staff, as well as logging their location.

It means that the real risk in a fall or trip, that being unable to call for help and the possibility of being left unfound for hours, or even days, is completely ameliorated by the floor sensors.

The technology also dovetails into a wristband for residents, that allows keyless entry to rooms, but can also direct lifts automatically to each resident’s “casa”.

Along with no steps, ramps or thresholds, as well as lighting that increases and decreases depending on the time of day, the Village appears to be setting the way, for 21st Century aged care.

And sooner or later, we’re all going to need it.