Caty moved from hospitality and retail into fitting community alarms for South Lanarkshire Council as part of the A2D (Analogue to Digital project), which is updating the technology before analogue telephone services in the UK are switched off at the end of next year.

As one of South Lanarkshire University Health and Social TEC Assistants and, with more than 7000 new digital alarms to fit, the work is non-stop – but the nature of it makes it fulfilling every day.

Caty said: “We visit service-users to install the new digital alert alarms, either because we are replacing old analogue alarms or carrying out brand new installations. In addition to this, we also visit service users to resolve any faults or problems with their alarms.

“As a result, it is really busy but it’s always rewarding because we know that what we do helps to keep people at home and out of long-term care for longer, as well as also helping to get people out of hospital and back into the comfort of their own homes.”

 

The team is managed by Amy Brown, who is enthused by the benefits the project will bring.

She said: “All of our service-users who have community alert alarms and telecare sensors to support them to live safe, well and independently at home need to be transferred to a compatible digital product by the ambitious national deadline in December 2025.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort and attitude from Caty and the rest of the team because we are well on the way to ensuring that our alert alarm service users have the updated technology – and the added reassurance that it will bring – in place for then.”

Councillor Margaret Walker, the council’s Chair of Social Work Resources, said: “Community alarms have been a comfort and a reassurance to many people across South Lanarkshire.

“It is vital that the technology underpinning those resources is fit for the future and so I am delighted at the progress that the team have made, and will make, to ensure the technology is able to continue to contribute to the safety of so many vulnerable people and let them, and their families, rest easier as a result.”

Professor Soumen Sengupta, Director of Health and Social Care for South Lanarkshire, said: “Extending and enabling greater use of digital technologies is vital to the transformation of health and social care services – and plays an increasingly important role in enabling more and more local people to thrive within our communities.

“Our commitment to A2D is a very timely example of this, and so I would like to thank all of our service users and their families for their continuing support for the important work of all those colleagues who are playing their part in delivering these improvements locally.”

Community alarms are part of a range of assistive technology available to South Lanarkshire residents, and more information can be found on the council website.