'AI monitor lets Mum stay in her home and out of care'

Economists say remote monitoring could save the NHS 1.2bn by 2035. Rosie Taylor talks to a woman using it to let her mum keep her independence, while she’s 140 miles away

- Rosie Taylor

It is never easy caring for an elderly parent with dementia, especially when you live a three-hour drive away. But Rhona D'Arcy is able to keep an eye on her mother Heather White, 86, despite the distance, thanks to a system of AI monitors in her home.

Heather has vascular dementia but can only afford to have private carers visit briefly twice a day. To receive more support, she’d need to sell her home and move into care – something the fiercely independent former counsellor is adamant she does not want to do.

Instead, a remote-monitoring system checks how often Heather moves between rooms, when she uses the bathroom, whether she’s been using the fridge and kettle, the temperature of the house and when people go in and out of the front door.

And because the system uses AI to learn Heather’s normal behaviour, it alerts her daughter if anything is concerning – like if she’s unusually still, goes to the bathroom more than normal or unexpectedly leaves the house. When she gets an alert, Rhona calls Heather, or asks local carers or relatives to check on her.

“I have so much information as to what’s going on, which really helps me to communicate with her,” said Rhona. “I know if she’s had a bad night or she hasn’t moved all morning and might be feeling a bit low, so I can call her for a chat. And because I can see how many visitors she has had or how much she was up in the night, I can ask her relevant questions which can help prompt her to talk about things she wouldn’t remember otherwise.”