Mulling over George Pope to STEVE ASHER 13 Jun 2004

SA> According to the a staff member at the site, relatives can "see
SA> what's going on: Are they spending a lot of time in their apartment
SA> or are they out on an outing with other residents."

 GP> Yup, and the real problem -- staff can allow themselves to become
 GP> quite distracted now and if/when there is a real problem, they'll
 GP> be so used to not being alert to problems, being their focus is on
 GP> their video game, telephone call, flirting with one another, etc.,
 GP> etc., that when something does come up, out of the ordinary, or not
 GP> indicating about to lose an inmate at the outer periphery (hey, if
 GP> you hear the beep for them slipping out the side door, you can
 GP> continue what you're doing until you hear the beep for the back
 GP> fence, and STILL have time to finish what one is doing before
 GP> appointing the lowest-seniority staff member currently on to go
 GP> chase down the escapee! 

The real problem is that RFID & monitoring is being implemented for
"problems" that do not exist, except in the minds of those pushing
RFID "solutions". The vast bulk of people in aged care facilities
do not need to be tracked & monitored; they are quite capable of
fending for themselves, & can have emergency call buttons etc, if
there is a risk of a fall etc. There are one or two reports a year
here of someone with altzheimer's wandering off, but they are usually
found by the police & searchers before they come to any harm.

 GP> That might be fine for that purpose, but what about when the staff
 GP> are so distracted by their non-duty activities, that they're too
 GP> far from being on alert when something ELSE happens (eg. choking,
 GP> cardiac coding, falling, etc.?) 

And there, the "panic buttons" should be more effective in calling help
than RFID triggering alerts every time someone passes through a door,
or strays too far in the garden. I can see that hospitals will love
RFID bracelets - they can catch the smokers as they sneak out of the
building for a quick puff of what is increasingly becoming an illegal
substance. Next they might want DNA samples so they can match the 
discarded butts to the smokers.

Cheers, Steve..

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