Welcome to Better@Home
Better@Home helps you stay healthy and independent, giving you control over your wellbeing so you can enjoy more time at home and less time dealing with hospital visits.
Better@Home helps you stay healthy and independent, giving you control over your wellbeing so you can enjoy more time at home and less time dealing with hospital visits.
Hydration is crucial for maintaining health, especially as we age. Proper hydration supports vital functions. It regulates body temperature, lubricates joints, aids digestion, and boosts cognitive performance. For older adults, staying hydrated is vital. It helps prevent health issues like urinary tract infections, kidney stones, and constipation. In severe cases, it can prevent confusion, falls, and hospitalisations.
Common signs of dehydration are a dry mouth, low urination, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, and a fast heartbeat.
To stay hydrated, adults should:
Drink water regularly
Carry a water bottle
Eat water-rich foods.
Flavour water for taste
Avoid caffeine and alcohol
Check urine colour
Avoid caffeine and alcohol
As we get older, relationships can change and you may begin to lose loved ones, we can begin to feel less connected and more isolated. This can have a big impact on the way we think and feel and hope we cope with life's ups and downs. Looking after our mental wellbeing and keeping connected can so important.
Balanced Meals
Portion Control
Stay Hydrated
Limit Sugar and Salt
Consume Healthy Fats
Prepare Colourful Plates
Staying active and flexible is vital for health, especially in frail adults. Gentle stretching and movement have many benefits. They improve mobility, reduce pain, enhance balance, and increase strength.
Benefits of Stretching and Movement:
Improves flexibility
Enhances circulation
Reduces stiffness
Supports Balance
Boosts Mood
Good nutrition is vital as we age. It keeps our strength, our minds, and our ability to recover from illness. The foods we eat can help us live well or cause a decline with age. Follow the following dietary guidelines:
Stay in Touch
Schedule Visits
Join Clubs or Groups
Volunteer
Use Technology
Aging is a natural part of life, and with the right approach, it can be a time of growth, fulfilment, and vitality. Strong evidence shows these activities keep you well: hydration, nutrition, exercise, and social connection. Also, get vaccinated and stopping smoking helps to keep people well.
Better@home offers remote monitoring through a mobile tablet which links you to a team of nurses and paramedics. They will check on your measurement and health questionnaires and contact you if anything if anything looks amiss. Your home carers can use this service as well to support you and keep you well.
Home monitoring means that there is a clinical team providing support for your care at home. You connect with them by providing regular information about your health via short questionnaires or sharing results on a tablet or mobile phone. The team reviews this information via dashboards and provides advice and support. This may be via video calls, phone calls or direct messaging through the app. The team is made up of nurses, doctors and also health coaches.
You will be given full support to set up home monitoring and send across results by a dedicated team.
Home monitoring is also sometimes known as remote monitoring, remote patient monitoring (RPM) or digital home care. These are all the same thing.
If your health worsens, you may be referred to the Hospital at Home service.
This is like home monitoring. But, doctors and nurses will watch you more closely. You may also get home visits.
Doccla runs the Better@home team. They already work with the virtual ward team in Gloucestershire.
Carers often tell us that that find it hard to get health advice or to know who to ring if they are worried about someone they visit at home.
Calling health services can take a long time and many carers have many home visits to make. They don’t want to leave you without health advice but are worried they are letting their other home clients down. We want to support home carers to gain advice from our experienced nurses and paramedics.
Carers can use your Better@home mobile tablet provided to you free of charge. They can message our team or fill out a questionnaire with you.
The Better@Home team will be working with your GP surgerys' nurses and GPs when you are onboarded into the program.
We will ensure your care is joined up. We will all work from the same medical records and share treatment plans.
We hope you and your home carers will find the Better@Home service helpful but if you want to leave at any time, it will not affect the care or service you already receive from your GP surgery.
"I wasn't so sure about the app but the other week they knew about my chest infection before I even knew, they rang and gave me advice, and I was sorted before I even knew I was poorly!"