For My Rehab Team’s latest professional development session, we had the lovely Jon from Smart Places come in and introduce smart home and home automation products for everyday use. Jon, with a background in rehabilitative equipment and occupational therapy undergraduate study, founded Smart Places with his brother Reuben in response to the growing demand for smart product assistance in the national disability sector. They are passionate about working closely with occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals to find the best smart home solutions for clients’ everyday living.
What do Smart Places offer?
They provide a variety of products, including:
- Smart lighting and switches – Clients can use voice commands or their phones to control the lighting in their homes.
- Smart air control – Clients can automate climate control or adjust it using voice commands.
- Smart cleaners and environment – Clients can integrate robotic vacuum cleaners and smart smoke alarms into their homes.
- Smart locks – Clients can enhance home security with e-key management, allowing them to control who can access their homes and improving safety in case of a break-in.
- Smart blinds – Clients can control their blinds using voice commands or a remote.
- Smart garage opener – Clients can use voice control to open their garage doors.
- Smart bedding – Smart Places offers a range of mattresses and bedding accessories designed for comfort, practicality, and support for various disabilities.
- Automation – Motorised and/or systematic control within the home that supports accessibility, function and routine.
We would like to thank Jon from Smart Places for this insightful session and look forward to seeing more of their products improving our clients’ safety, comfort, and quality of life. https://www.smartplaces.com.au/
What is the right solution?
Having a good understanding about the functional barrier and its consequences, and matching them with a compatible automation solution is the principle to achieving the right solution. An Occupational Therapist (OT) is the expert to help a client. Here are a couple of case examples:
Our OT had a client who was unable to open the front entrance and bedroom doors because he didn’t have the arm strength to open or close a door and he couldn’t push or pull the door at the same time as driving his wheelchair to get through the doorway. Therefore, he depended on carers to access his home and bedroom. Smart Places proposed a solution of automatic sliding doors. We are waiting for NDIS to review our AT application.
Our OT had another client whose arms were too weak to reach the fridge handle and to pull open the fridge door. She had to use an esky to store food when no one was home to assist her with the fridge. Our OT prescribed a touch opening fridge from a local retailer. This allowed her independent use of the fridge. The NDIS funded the touch opening upgrade of a fridge.
If you have a functional barrier, contact My Rehab Team for an Occupational Therapist who would love to work with you to come up with the most suitable solution. https://myrehabteam.com.au/mobile-occupational-therapy/
By Vaishnavi Dalvi