My Joice TV

Sweden

2007

The main objective is to support frail older people and people with functional limitations, who live at home, to be independent, through an easy-to-use ICT. Moreover, the service is designed to provide peace-of-mind to informal carers, to increase the efficiency of formal carers by replacing some home visits with virtual ones so to partially relieve them from their caregiving duties.

The main driver of My Joice was the first-hand experience of a family caregiver living away from an aged parent. Therefore My Joice aims to increase the independence of frail older users and those with functional limitations, who live alone and at high risk of social isolation and who do not have experience using computers. In addition, the service aspires to provide individualized solutions for informal and formal carers.

An additional driver was to make video communication a reality for older people without computer experience. Two final drivers were to develop a response to current e-inclusion and community care policies for the two target groups as well as “ageing in place”.

 Care Recipients
 Informal carers
 Paid assistants
 Formal carers

Not available

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

The provided ICT services enhance the independent living of older people , reducing the formal and informal carers’ burden and improving the provided care and safety.

The services encompass:

My Joice: by means of a computer with a webcam and a two way speaker, informal and formal carers can communicate with the older user who lives alone. Carers can check care recipients through a remote control. Care recipients can call up a formal or informal carer using an address book containing a photo of the person with whom they would like to call

Night Peace: this is addressed to care recipients, who need supervision or additional care and security in their homes, 24 hours per day. With Night Peace, supervision is more frequent compared to in-home visits. Night Peace allows carers to devote more time and resources to provide quality care. One or more motion-sensitive cameras are installed in the home. Care recipients and providers agree when and how to monitor. Monitoring is either done proactively at certain intervals or following an alarm, when the system sends a message to both computers and mobile phones. This allows the health professionals to assess the situation in real time and decide whether to dispatch staff for a home visit.

Both My Joice and Night Peace provide security to users and make monitoring independent from climatic conditions, that can be particularly adverse in some periods of the year. In particular with Night Peace, carers can avoid having to make emergency home visits at all times and in all types of weather.

Technological devices used by carers and care recipients for “My Joice” are a video phone, a TV set, a computer with a webcam and two way speaker. The devices included in the package are:

1. 1 JoiceBox - remote control
2. 1 BlackBox - digital box
3. 1 webcam,
4. 1 TV connection cable
5. 2 power supplies
6. 1 installation manual

For the” Night Peace” service the following devices are needed:

1. Motion-sensitive
2. Software for health care providers installed on any PC
3. Links to the mobile phone

The "Videophone Booth" contains:

1. Videoscreen and webcamera
2. Joice Videophone
3. Rolling stand according to customer choice
4. Booking Chart
5. Joice subscription with unlimited calling
6. On-Site Support
7. Unlimited number of PC users conencted i.e. relatives and friends

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

Since the business goal was to make the service user-friendly and effective, the strategy was to charge all users, which is a feasible model in Sweden. The fee for the original service named “MyJoice”, which is roughly 25 Euros per month, is equivalent to the cost of a personal alarm system. Municipalities pay from 75 to 125 Euros a month. Information on the cost of the other services (“Night Peace” and “The Videophone Booth”) are not available.

Given the increasingly recognised need to solve the challenging long term care requirements of older people, prospects for future funding of ICT solutions, such as My Joice, are high, both nationally as well as internationally. However, less expensive solutions, such as Skype, are becoming increasingly popular, so it is important to be cost competitive. The company’s chances of sustaining funding and bringing in new users are positive, as the initiative is highly relevant for community care policies that fulfil the need of more individualised and sustainable forms of family care support for informal working carers, address e-health strategy and place the citizen at the centre of health care and social services.

€ 0 - 10,000

Not available

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

Not available

Not applicable

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

Professionals form a dedicated staff in charge of virtual visits, checking on the care recipient, providing computer training to staff, in addition to technical training for informal and formal carers.

Not applicable

501 - 1,000

Ca 1000

Regarding promotion strategies, My Joice entered into several agreements including a trial contract with a major US home care service provider, which was an important company milestone. The trial confirmed the application of the Joice solution for simplified home care video communication services for older people and people with functional limitations.

Not available

Not available

Not available

Strengths:

1. The use of the service requires only limited training, since it is user friendly even for those lacking experience with ICTs. An additional simplification, for people unable to operate the ICT, is a call function that allows authorized carers to automatically connect to the care recipient.
2. More effective use of resources.
3. The service provides increased care quality.
4. The service provides increased security for the care recipient and caregiver.
5. The service is environmentally friendly.
6. The service was given an award as best technical innovation by the Illinois Health Care Association at its Annual Convention in Peoria. The motivation reads: "For the first time, millions of elderly and disabled people will be able to communicate through their ordinary TV set in a way that is unsurpassed in its simplicity."

Weaknesses:

1. As municipalities are self-governing and have different IT systems the company still needs a long “start-up” time to ensure the compatibility of its system with that of the municipality.
2. The main webpage does not present the impact assessment document carried out in Sweden.

Opportunities:

1. A solution to the first weakness, would be to by-pass the care providers and directly market the service to private users as has been done in other European countries as well as the in the United States and Japan.
2. There is a large segment of older people who do not have experience using ICTs, but who wish to remain independent. This would give an opportunity for Joice Care if it can continue to fulfil the needs of end-users.

Threats:

1. For service providers dealing with emergency situations involving older people who live alone, one threat is responding late due to various factors. For example, in the implementation phase there were difficulties with the project documentation of the professionals and the organisation of the municipality. The home help staff could not use the system as well as expected, due to their workload. And formal and informal carers, who lacked experience using computers, had difficulty using the system, even though they received computer training.
2. Another challenge concerns the staff’s negative attitude to utilizing technological care services for care recipients, because they fear being replaced by monitors, alarms and other devices.
3. Formal carers fear being observed and controlled by cameras as in a “Big Brother” show and, for this reason, they could not accept the technology.

The service has a local, regional, European and international presence in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, Norway and Japan. As it involves the NHS, the social services and a private organisation like Ericsson, it is fully integrated into the care system. The initiative has attracted significant interest in the US for isolated older people with family who live far away. It is being actively marketed for private users, thus providing evidence that the basic Joice TV-videophone system can readily be transferred to other countries.

Resources:

http://www.myjoice.se/

Publications

Hansson A., Hallgren T. (2010), Pilotprojektet MyJoice, Ökad kommunikation och större kontaktytor för seniorer i Älvsborgsstadsdel. Teknikprojekt äldreomsorgenm SDF Älvsborg, MyJoice AB & Telia Sonera, Slutrapport.

Customer Service
JoiceCare AB
Fotögatan 6A
414 74 Göteborg
Telephone: 0046 (0)32 761 35 00
info@myjoice.com

Technical support
Telephone: 0046 (0)735 25 06 59
support@joicecare.com

Head Office Adress:
JoiceCare AB
Fotögatan 6A
414 74 Göteborg
Sweden

USA and Canada:

Peter Holmertz
Country Manager, North America
peter.holmertz@joicecare.com
Telephone: 001 512 658 1112
www.joicecare.com

Japan:

Björn Nilsson Futagami
Country Manager, Japan
bjorn@myjoice.jp
Telephone: 0081 050 5532 9921
Mobile: 0081 090 2823 0765
www.joicecare.com

Spain:

Jesús Manso
Country Manager, Spain
jesus.manso@joicecare.com
Mobile: 0034 657 881 480
www.joicecare.com