Try-it

Ireland

29-12-2008

Try-it aims to contribute to the removal of social and environmental barriers that currently prevent people with disabilities from participating equally in all aspects of life by enabling staff and service users of member organisations to borrow devices to enhance client assessments or for professional training.

This initiative is designed to:

• Increase awareness of and access to suitable technological solutions to support independence of disabled people;
• Increase efficiency and effectiveness of related services.

The Try-it project was initiated by the National Rehabilitation Hospital in partnership with Enable Ireland’s National Assistive Technology Training Service, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Assistive Communication Technologies Officers Network.

The project set out to create and run an on-line library of electronic assistive technology (EAT) and to provide a forum for professional networking and training. As a result, people with disabilities throughout Ireland will be able to borrow and trial new EAT devices; receive feedback from other users and AT assessors; make informed decisions about what best suits their particular circumstances prior to making significant financial or time commitments; and avail of assessments by potentially more informed and highly trained professionals (as a result of the education, training and support dimension).

Try.it moves from the belief that, when appropriately selected and supported ,technologies can:

• Provide enhanced dignity, efficacy and sense of independence for the user,
• Enable greater levels of social inclusion and enhanced quality of life,
• Ease the burden of care and alleviate concerns for family members and carers, and
• Result in an economically viable solution to care.

Access to suitable technologies to support independence is a necessity for individuals with disabilities: providing independence, facilitating social inclusion, and enabling participation in opportunities that are taken for granted by individuals who do not have disabilities.

 Care Recipients
 Informal carers
 Paid assistants
 Formal carers

-Care recipients: disabled individuals living in Ireland who may benefit from the use of assistive technologies (AT).

-Informal carers: relatives, friends or neighbours of disabled people who may be seeking information on AT.

-Formal carers: professionals affiliated to the formal care sector working in area of electronic assistive technology & providing support to individuals with disabilities.

 Independent Living
 Information and learning for carers
 Personal Support and Social Integration for carer
 Care coordination

Provided services are therefore:

• Supporting independent living of the elderly.
• Increasing employment possibilities of formal and informal carers.
• Enabling greater integration into mainstream education of carers and elderly.
• Enhancing quality of life for user.
• Reducing hospital stays.

On line library of electronic assistive technology (EAT) and a forum for professional networking and training.

Both public and private

Public service funding: Government, Regional, Local Authorities, non-profit public entities

Not available

Private out of pocket: users pay the service by themselves

Not available

Try-It is founded on the principles that the high level of device abandonment and associated wasted resources (therapy hours, unnecessary carer contact hours etc) may be avoided and the most appropriate technological solutions found if people with disabilities are afforded a trial period before purchase. Also, efficiency and effectiveness of related caring can be strengthened through a collaborative approach. As a result of the project, people with disabilities throughout Ireland will be able to borrow and trial new EAT devices; receive feedback from other users and AT assessors; make informed decisions about what best suits their particular circumstances prior to making significant financial or time commitments; and avail of assessments by potentially more informed and highly trained professionals (as a result of the education, training and support dimension).

This service lives thanks to the members payments and it could sustain itself only through an effective informative and marketing campaign that attracts new users. The service is potentially very useful for disabled and older people and it should have more relations with the NHS because it could be an additional tool for integration of social and health services.

€ 50,000 - 500,000

Not available

 Authorities
 Private Care Sector
 Health and Social Care Systems
 Third Sector
 Private Companies

Not available

The third sector participates through donations.

 Informal Carers
 Health Professionals
 Social Care Professionals
 Privately-Hired Care Assistants (inc. Migrant Care Workers)
 Volunteers

Not available

Volunteers not involved.

100,001 - 500,000

More than 100,000 per year.

Not available

Benefits of the service on the quality of life of the end-users:

- Informal carers: service reconciles care and work, improves their social life and health as it eases the burden of care and alleviates concerns resulting in an economically viable solution to care.

- Elderly people: the service improves their health and social relationships. It enhances dignity, efficacy and sense of independence and enables greater levels of social inclusion and enhanced quality of life.

The service has other benefits: it raises the acceptability of the ICT in the society (clients, professional carers and cared elderly) (Try-it, 2009)

Benefits of this service on:

-Private organisations that provide care (policy makers and founders within the disability sector): the service helps to save costs and optimize resources as it provides information and access to devices enabling staff and users of member organisations to select appropriate technological solutions according to the specific caring needs.

-Companies and labour market: the service helps the informal carer to reconcile paid work and caring tasks (Try-it, 2009) .

Indirect benefits on public authorities, NHS and social care services: due to economic and social advantages of facilitating greater levels of independent living the service helps to save the costs of home caring and hospitalisation as it is effective in training informal carers and qualifying formal carers. In this way it helps to optimise financial and human resources (Try-it, 2009).

Strengths:

1. This project benefits the service providers and users through enhanced immediate and long-term service delivery. Given the enormous positive impact that EAT, when correctly matched and utilized, can have on the lives of tens of thousands of citizens, the service intends to provide efficient and prompt access to EAT for all disabled people in Ireland.
2. The project has successfully developed an innovative web-based application which enables members to make on-line requests for EAT devices for trial periods (typically four weeks) to enhance client assessments or for professional training. The website Final Evaluation provides relevant information, including product reviews and a calendar of upcoming events. The application driving the website offers a structured system for the management and provision of devices for trial and a transparent and integrated system for data collection. For the first time in Ireland, www.try-it.ie offers a collaborative loan facility for EAT and provides a platform for collecting and exchanging information on EAT and its use. By the end of June 2009, the library held a total of 217 items with a combined value of €251,419, of which €110,238 had been donated by the partner organizations.
3. The 2009 statistics reveal significant savings have been made by avoiding inappropriate purchases and related costs and maximising resource utilization. Having trialed a device from www.try-it.ie, members and EAT users decided the device did not match or only partially matched the user’s needs in 41% of loans. This information potentially avoided inappropriate purchases of over €185,000, plus additional financial savings associated with device abandonment and wasted man-hours etc.

Weaknesses

1. Some users found delay in borrowing devices because they were out on loan to other members. The evaluator’s discussions with various members, project personnel and members of the Steering Committee suggested that there is a degree of concern around the potential for increased delays as membership expands. This issue appears to be most acute in two scenarios. Firstly, staff of the National Rehabilitation Hospital typically have only a short window of opportunity to source appropriate EAT for their clients who tend to be in-patients. Secondly, some departments of partner organisations effectively transferred their own loan stocks to www.try-it.ie. A small number of members indicated that they have experienced delays in sourcing equipment through www.try-it.ie which they previously held within their own service, which is generating a degree of frustration. For such concerns the loan period was reduced from six to four weeks in the spring of 2009. Arguably, the loan period could be further reduced where the loan is for the purposes of professional familiarisation as opposed to for a client. It will be important that the frequency and extent of such delays is closely monitored by the Project Manager.
2. There is general agreement that the user interface of the booking equipment has improved significantly since the time of the interim evaluation, but that some aspects such as arranging returns remain slightly confusing and could be further enhanced.
3. Members have been forthcoming with other suggestions as to how the site could be improved and the types of additional equipment they would like to see included in the online library.
4. The website should be more attractive and give more information.
5. The website has not a “Contacts” link.
6. The initiative seems to be not so integrated in the health and social care system network.

Opportunities

1. Trialling a device through www.try-it.ie served to confirm expectations that the selected device was appropriate for the user’s needs in 40% of loans. Access to this shared resource by several agencies is therefore already proving cost effective – enabling many users from differing agencies and settings to avail of the same equipment and benefit from the same investment. Such savings and economies of scale are expected to increase with continued operation of this resource. 95% of respondents to the member survey felt that www.try-it.ie has already, or will in the future, result in savings through the avoidance of inappropriate EAT purchases.

Threats/Challenges

1. Given the background and representation of the consortium members, disabilities that are specifically catered for include, but are not limited to: blindness, brain injury, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, limb loss, motor neurone disease, spinal cord injury, and visual impairment. These are traditionally the categories of disabilities that the partner organisations deal with; however, multiple and more complex disabilities are increasingly presenting. Also, all consortium members are involved in the project for the good of the society who could benefit from appropriate use of assistive technology, regardless of disability classification or functional impairment. The target group is therefore expected to grow with increasing awareness of the project.

Membership of Try-it is open to professionals in the area of EAT spanning fields such as healthcare, education and employment. In 2009, 297 employees from 88 centres within 30 organisations were active members of Try-it. Participating centres were based in 18 counties, half in Dublin. The website has been visited more than 10,000 times by over 5,400 unique visitors. In 2009 (most recent available evaluation of the service) the number of loans being processed was experiencing strong growth at a rate of over of 57.6% per quarter since July 2008. These data are the evidence that the service has many possibilities to be transferred at different levels and to other geographical areas.

Available assessment of the service (2009) at http://www.try-it.ie/d/?q=node/129

 

Not available