Innovation: Tyze online care network

Canada

AAI Domains:

• Capacity and enabling environment (use of ICT)

• Participation in society (social connectedness)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (independent living)

Providing support to carers is one of the World Health Organisation’s priority interventions for active ageing and this can be done in a variety of ways. The power of social networks is increasingly recognised as being a contributor to improving health and well-being, particularly when harnessing the potential of ICT-based innovations. As Facebook has enabled people to share their lives with their family and friends, there is scope for a similar approach to be developed to meet the needs of people receiving care and the people involved in providing that care. Social innovations have a role to play.

Tyze is an online platform created by a social enterprise of the same name in 2009 to provide a secure means of storing and exchanging information for a person in need of social care with their wider caring network. The aim of Tyze is to increase the economic efficiency of social care through information sharing, achieve better outcomes by securing better coordination and to provide a better experience for people in need of social care support.

Tyze enables individuals receiving care and their wider caring network to post appointments in the shared calendar, store documents and information on tasks that need to be undertaken. Tyze can be accessed using a smart phone, tablet or computer and the number and range of users is decided by the individual and their carers so it can extend beyond direct carers to distant family members, friends and neighbours as well as health and social care professionals.

The business model for Tyze is subscription based with health and social care organisations paying more for the service than individual users. In 2014, Tyze was acquired by Saint Elizabeth Health Care, a large and long established non-profit health care provider, in order to be scaled up and there are now more than 10,000 users in Canada and it has started operating in parts of the USA and in the UK where it has been supported by the Nominet Trust, Nesta, the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Cabinet Office’s Innovation in Giving Fund.

Research on Tyze indicates that it saves time for people involved with providing care, reduces the level of stress felt by carers and improve social connectedness across the caring network. It also made it easier for people in need of care to feel more empowered and able to ask for further assistance that they needed and to feel less socially isolated and more able to live independently.

In relation to active ageing, Tyze provides an innovative use of ICT for people in need of care by building stronger social connections across and within their caring network. This can contribute to their ability to live independently and safely in their own home for longer and reduce the stress and strain of caring that can hinder their ability to actively age well.

Websites

Tyze

The Guardian article