Trying to find the perfect gift for elderly parents is often difficult and as we rack our brains and desperately search the shops and the internet for the ultimate present, the greatest gift of all is sitting right under our noses…
What could be more precious than the gift of life and the feeling of being safe at home this Christmas?
Every year Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Safe at Home Service provides 3500 Lifeline and Telecare installations within the County Borough. The Council’s Lifeline service is here to help residents feel safe at home and now offers a lifeline home safety service, which by linking in to several detectors placed around the home, can detect fires, floods, carbon monoxide leaks and provide a link to help in case of falls or vulnerable situations.
The service includes a lifeline and emergency pendant/wrist band, 2 smoke detectors, 2 flood detectors, a heat detector, carbon monoxide detector and an optional bogus caller button, all for just £3.50 per week. All of this equipment is automatically maintained by the lifeline service.
The aim of the service is to offer support at home all year round, including Christmas day, using the highly effective monitoring devices and a 24/7 response team available thorough the telephone line during any incident. The Call Centre response staff are highly skilled in customer services and have attained Excellence Wales recognition.
The detectors, when activated, automatically call the 24 hour response centre for emergency assistance, ensuring that residents and their homes are safe at all times. The system also provides an option, which provides assistance if they are faced with a bogus caller.
The Lifeline Service is used by over 4,500 residents in the County Borough and responds to emergency situations, on average, under 15 seconds. Rhondda Cynon Taf is the only Council in Wales to offer a Lifeline Home Safety Package to all residents over 60 years old.
If your parents are elderly, frail, disabled, living alone or you just want to ensure that they are as safe as possible in their own homes, then the Council’s Safe AT Home Service can help you. The range of services offer packages that can assist residents in their every day life by providing clients and their families with the reassurance and peace of mind that, in the event of an emergency, help can be called easily and quickly.
Last Christmas, one resident needed to use the Safe AT Home service over the festive period, as his son had put on her gas fire to warm up the house, which triggered a danger call to the Call Centre from his carbon monoxide detector. The Fire Brigade were called and discovered that the client’s chimney was blocked, therefore causing a build up of fumes within the home. The client and many others like him have been saved from dangerous situations by the Council’s effective Safe AT Home service.
The client, said: “The safe at home service is invaluable and did indeed save my life. I would not have known the dangers that were lurking up my chimney if it were not for this service. I really do feel safe at home with this service. I know that if I was ever in danger, the people in the contact centre would ensure that help was on it way.”
Councillor Mike Forey, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Services, added: “The Lifeline and Safe AT Home packages provide a vital service to vulnerable adults across the County Borough. I am delighted to hear that the service has potentially saved another life. I would like to thank the team for their hard work over the last two decades; the team continue to investigate even more technology to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are kept Safe AT Home.”
If you would like more information on the Safe AT Home service and how it could benefit your family members, please call 01443 239104 or email [email protected], alternatively visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk.
