Tele-monitoring : a care telephone support service : a review of its administration

Abstract

Although Telecare Service has been around for quite a considerable time, the proposed Tele-monitoring is a novelty for the Maltese Islands. Tele-monitoring is a system by which the carers of the Home-help and Handyman Sections can be monitored through a programme which is compatible with the Telecare system; and can be run by the Telecare staff in liaison with the concerned sections. This paper tries to investigate whether it is viable to introduce Tele-monitoring; and to highlight how the facilities provided by such technology will have a major impact on the service organizations, the carers and society. The results showed that Tele-monitoring can be delivered to the right people at the right time, thus enabling well-informed decisions regarding monitoring of staff to be made. Unfortunately, there could be a degree of antagonism from the carers, who might percieve the monitoring system as an intrusion, and reflect that there is a degree of dissent from the management level. Moreover, Tele-monitoring involves an increase of workload on the existent staff which could result in resistance to its implementation if no additional staff is provided. These conflicts may be counteracted only if the staff is involved throughout the process of implementation of Tele-monitoring and decisions are taken within the context of arbitrary negotiations.