An innovative project to help care home residents in Dudley has been recognised by ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services). 

The scheme gives care home residents access to a RITA tablet and the 24" RITA system, which uses sound and vision to stimulate people’s thoughts and ideas. See video here

RITA is being used in residential and nursing homes across the borough and at two dementia gateways – Queens Cross in Dudley and Brett Young in Halesowen.

Marie Spittle, Head of Access & Prevention said:

"With regard to the evaluation we built a pro-forma to gather the evidence of the difference it had made. Homes have to report the number of falls that have happened in a home each month, hospital admissions, so we wanted to use that baseline data. To actually document what difference it had made."

"So we pulled all those results together and we analysed it all in terms of some of the outcomes that had been achieved through the use of RITA."

"What that included was a reduction in falls. It included a reduction in one-to-one safeguarding incidents, it included a reduction in hospital admissions, it demonstrated an improvement in the quality of life - so informal carers also told us that they were able to have meaningful conversations."

From a commissioning stand point, Marie points out that RITA has aided them as a commissioning support tool:

"A couple of the homes said that when somebody’s situation deteriorated, maybe dementia where they become more challenging, they were able to accommodate those changing needs in the same unit instead of saying ‘can we have this person reassessed because we can no longer manage that person’s changing needs’. So we were able to pull that in as part of the evaluation."

"In terms of New Bradley Hall, which was one of the homes we worked with, they were able to accommodate a person with changing needs as part of the pilot. So the person was in a very high cost placement because of their needs and what they did through the use of RITA was support that person to move into New Bradley Hall. What they could do with RITA, and a number of other tools within their toolbox, because RITA was just one, was accommodate that person‘s needs at the standard rate. And that wasn’t an isolated incident, they were then able to accommodate another two or three people in a very similar situation - not the same because everyone is different - but in a similar situation again where they could accommodate someone with those, you know, intense needs, if you like, at the standard rate."