East Lothian Rehabilitation Service have launched a dedicated website providing self-guided solutions and professional advice to support residents to take charge of their health and wellbeing.
The East Lothian Rehabilitation Service (ELRS) have launched a dedicated website, abetterlife.eastlothian.gov.uk providing self-guided solutions and professional advice to support East Lothian residents take charge of their health and well-being, and live a better life in East Lothian.
Part of the wider East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, the ELRS incorporates a range of Allied Health Professionals including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, exercise specialists, community care works and technology enabled care officers.
The team is based in three locations across the county; Musselburgh Primary Care Centre, East Lothian Community Hospital Haddington and at Belhaven Hospital in Dunbar. As well as offering telephone consultations and in-person appointments, the team support patients in the community and in their own homes, especially those who have just been discharged from hospital.
From engaging and listening to the community, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership understand that people want the opportunity to stay active and live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. The ELRS website, abetterlife.eastlothian.gov.uk can help them achieve this. The website provides information, advice and recommendations to help people say active and independent for as long as possible.
Specific features of the website include an Interactive Smart Home, Interactive Body Map, Falls Prevention Advice and the opportunity to complete a LifecurveTM assessment.
The Interactive Smart Home provides a virtual tour of different rooms in a home, showcasing a wide range of telecare and smart technological aids that can support independence. Items such as fall alarms, memory aid reminders and smart devices that enables people to control heating, lighting and security, as well as make voice activated telephone or video calls. The majority of devices shown are low-cost and easy to set up. There is also a self-assessment equipment tool, providing access to help, advice and equipment you may need without being added to a waiting list.
If someone is suffering from common aches and pains, the Interactive Body Map can be used to discover various solutions to help ease the pain by accessing links to demonstrative physiotherapy exercise videos, or self-help information from NHS Inform.
The dedicated falls section of the website provides practical advice to help prevent slips, trips and falls. The advice covers general health, moving more, walking aids, putting in place safety measures in the home environment, technical support and the means of improving balance and coordination. It also recommends having a ‘fall plan’ so that individuals can have the know-how, means and technology to support themselves should they have a fall at home.
A further feature of the website is the LifecurveTM assessment tool. Developed by Activities of Daily Living Research and Newcastle University, this feature involves taking a short quiz to help assess a person’s ability to perform daily activities. Using the results from the quiz, a person can position themselves on the LifecurveTM and gain insights into how they are ageing. Armed with this information, it can help to signpost individuals to products, services and activities that will help them either maintain, or even recover some of their current abilities.
Adults of all ages are encouraged to visit the website abetterlife.eastlothian.gov.uk and interact with the resources it has to offer and reap the benefits of living a better life in East Lothian.