The role of smart home technology in enhancing supported living for people with complex needs and challenging behaviour

This paper describes the role that smart home technology can play in enhancing the provision of supported living for people with complex needs and challenging behaviour. Intelligent building systems, or smart house technologies, offer a flexible environment that can be readily adapted and mapped onto the needs of service users and their carers. The effective management and presentation of information on the activity of service users can assist in planning care and facilitating responses to their needs in ways that promote individual dignity and independence. This paper describes how an approach was developed, using smart home technology, based on local experiences with previous technological solutions. Recommendations are offered towards the specification of a system within a design brief. The application of these recommendations is illustrated in the use of smart house technology within three contrasting local projects and the advantages of applying this approach are discussed.