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New technology boosts safety and hygiene in Hong Kong’s care homes

GPS trackers and anti-strip overalls among innovations used to protect residents

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Grandma Kwan, 96, wears one of the GPS vests as she eats cake for tea. Photo: David Wong

It is a busy Monday afternoon at the Wong Cho Tong Care and Attention Home in Ho Man Tin, and it is teatime in the leisure room. Dozens of old people, many of them octogenarians, have their eyes glued to the television at the front of the room.

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An alert suddenly sounds over the speakers: “Someone has left the room on the second floor. Someone has left the room on the second floor.”

Facing a spate of residents wandering the building alone, the home introduced a programme in 2013 to install radio-frequency identification tags in the care home’s coats, so caretakers know the second one of them has walked out of a room.

Elderly care centres like this one are increasingly looking to simple technology to make their services more efficient and focused on those who need extra attention – dementia sufferers.

Now businesses and inventors are eyeing the market as one ripe for further development.

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“In the past, the biggest challenge for carers was the physical work, but nowadays more elderly people are being admitted with dementia or mental disabilities,” said Arisa Ho Siu-yin, the home’s supervisor.

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