5 minutes with Simon Hooper from RemindMecare

We spoke to Simon Hooper of RemindMecare about their plans for 2019. Those include an Alexa integrated in room care system, Electronic Life Records and integrations with care planning software and hardware such as a sensory table and free apps for home care.

Please tell us about the vision behind RemindMecare?

RemindMecare (aka ReMe) was born of the personal experience of myself and our co-founder, Etienne, that person centred care is delivered without a carer really knowing much about the person. That seemed strange and certainly my mother didn’t relish being treated like a numbered half hour slot by her domiciliary carers. They were doing their best, but we realised that technology could assist them do better. We all like to talk about ourselves, our interests and what makes us feel good. Since Facebook clearly achieves social interaction through collecting personal data, then why not do similar for the care sector? So, we built ReMe.

How does ReMe work?

We put it like this; ‘If you want to be known socially you use Facebook; for your business it’s LinkedIn. But to be known post diagnosis for who you are, not eMAR, EPR or EMR, but about yourself, your life, so carers and care organisations can deliver true person-centred care, what do you use’? ‘Previously, there was no solution. ReMe is a new breed, Activity Based software (not care planning software) that delivers digital activities (reminiscence, cognitive and music therapy plus sensory, entertainment and family engagement) and captures the data and outcomes into a unique data set called ELR (Electronic Life Records – preferences, habits, mood, wellbeing, memories, life story, family info., etc.). The app enables personalising activities such that ReMe is definable as the world’s first elderly and dementia Digi therapeutic, by reducing premature resort to medication through knowing the content that reduces agitation and delivering activities that optimise engagement.’

With a set of business tools wrapped around a person-centred care enhancing core, ReMe also offers businesses client acquisition, care training and CQC reporting tools, as well as ready-made group activities, family engagement and games. Through its unique ELR (Electronic Life Records; Life story, likes/dislikes, mood, memories, wellbeing, family) data set, the system enables the transfer of personal data across health and social care sectors and supports connectivity between the person cared for, family, care home and ward, thereby impacting on the key issues of independent and assisted living, better residential care and bed blocking in hospitals.

It sounds like ReMe does a lot, and it does. But it’s simple to use and fun, whether for an 8 or 80-year-old. And its free to consumers and makes money for care businesses.

How was ReMe developed?

Dementia care has relied on the work of luminaries such as Tom Kitwood and current academics such as Profs. Orrell and Brooker, and on the work of many regarding practice, policy and research. Indeed, our guides have been Prof. Dawn Brooker of Worcester University/ADS and Linsay Royan, who worked with Prof Orrell.

But today, in our view, technology needs to be properly recognised as being a new frontier for dementia care, and even more importantly to actually be adopted. For it can take bold strides forward. ReMe provides a carer with the tools to discover content that can better engage with the person, by illustrating memories and life story experiences, capturing them and replaying them. And, with the support of remote family to bolster them with their own content, recall and reassurance is enhanced. From this process ReMe enables building Activity based acute care plans that are bespoke to the individual. We have seen enhanced recall, unpromoted revelations of the world the person is living in and carers finding commonality of interest that has generated a bond that assists the care process.

How ReMe help support people living with dementia?

ReMe enables knowing what is engaging the person ‘today and build on it for use for ‘tomorrow’. ReMe’s My Story is a library of ever-growing knowledge of the person that can be shared along the patient pathway from diagnosis to end of life and, by everyone involved. It’s GP prescribable (well soon, when we complete the NHS Digital and EMIS app library entry process). And with the data being owned by the person cared for and family, ReMe makes personal data GDPR compliant.
ReMe is used at hospital admission, in the ward, and assists step down; and ReMe will soon be validated as the UK's first dementia Digi therapeutic, enabling reducing medication by reducing agitation through knowing how to optimally engage.

ReMe is integrateable with care planning software, hardware such as sensory touch tables that provide stimulation-based dementia therapy, and most recently with proprietary Amazon Alexa care skills that put entertainment, therapy and remote management into residents’ rooms.

For care businesses, one of the big factors, is that ReMe achieves a return on investment, so there’s no cost just benefit to adopting it.
What future work are you planning in regard to dementia for 2019?
We believe that greater knowledge of the person can lead to a greater ability to engage with the them. And, improves their quality of life and wellbeing. We therefore intend to work on improving ReMe’s ability to deliver outcomes reporting to improve dementia care and activity planning. We also want to create carer: PwD matching to capitalise on commonality of interests.

For care homes and care at home, we’re keen to focus on providing in room support and self-care management tools. For clearly there’s a need for remote access engagement and bespoke in-room entertainment. We’re very optimistic for 2019 for at last we’re seeing care businesses take the power of technology seriously.

One of our recent campaigns has been around seldom heard groups of people with dementia which includes LGBT+, BAME communities, young onset dementia, learning disabilities, prisons and rural communities. Does ReMe support people from seldom heard groups?

Yes, we’re working with Young Onset Dementia groups, such as at St Georges Hospital, and are in the process of reconfiguring ReMe to work with people with Learning Disabilities’s and MCI. ReMe’s multicultural and cross generational. For example, ReMe enables the creation of digital activities, but will also soon be able to identify common interests, cultural background, experiences and religion across a group of people and for example, between residents and carers.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

If it had not been for a dog called Miki, I would probably have been eaten by a polar bear whilst working in the Arctic as a young geologist. That’s me, saying thank you.