More Independence Through Web-Cam Monitoring?
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 18, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA--ResCare, Inc., one of the largest providers of residential services for people with disabilities, has launched a project that it says will help people to become or stay more independent while cutting down on the cost of having paid staff members in their homes.

The initiative, called 'Rest Assured', uses Internet-based technology such as Web-cameras, sensors, microphones, speakers, personal emergency response pendants, and temperature detectors to allow people in group homes, for instance, to be monitored from miles away.

The system has already been in use in eight homes across Indiana, with one ResCare employee monitoring several individuals from one location. If the employee needs to direct the resident, he or she can interact in "real time" through the system's speakers.

ResCare hopes the monitoring system can be spread to more facilities in Indiana and across the country. It is also planning to make the technology available to seniors and others who do not want to move to nursing homes.

Related:
Press release: ResCare Partners Offer Telecare System (ResCare)

DISCUSSION BOARD TOPIC: Long Distance Monitoring: Would you feel safer?
Tell us what do you think? Are technologies like 'Rest Assured' the answer to independence and safety for people with disabilities, at a lower financial cost? Or do they amount to an invasion of privacy, a kind of "Big Brother" with opportunities for abuse?
Discuss it with other Inclusion Daily Express readers here:
http://members5.boardhost.com/InclusionDaily

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Reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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