Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living

Today, Amazon announced Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living, a solution that enables Care Providers and assisted living facilities in the UK, France, Italy and Germany to integrate Alexa into their properties. Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living has been designed specifically for the needs of seniors and those caring for them. Alexa empowers residents to stay connected, informed and entertained, just by asking Alexa. 

“We believe the intuitive and accessible nature of voice and Alexa has the potential to help and delight customers in many scenarios, in and outside of the home,” said Meryem Tom, Head of Alexa EU Enterprise, Amazon. “We’re excited to extend the experiences that customers already love to European care homes and assisted living facilities, and give providers new ways to support their staff while delivering personalized care for their residents.”

Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living also enables residents to stay in touch with their loved ones outside the property thanks to Alexa-to-Alexa calling. Family members can easily get in touch and see their loved ones via video calling, bringing them peace of mind. Alexa Smart Properties can also help property managers to tailor resident experiences and support engagement within their properties by displaying activities, menus and reminders with Amazon Echo Show devices (devices with screens).

Care staff and team members can communicate more efficiently with residents using Alexa communication features, which enable them to make announcements, voice and video calls to other Alexa-enabled devices throughout the property. Properties can support residents to achieve greater independence with Smart Home features, such as smart lighting, blinds or thermostats that allow residents to control their in-room environment with just their voice, also saving staff time and allowing them to focus on care, nursing or social activities with residents. 

Martin Green, CEO of Care England, the leading representative body for small, medium and large Care Providers in England said: “We in the care sector need to invest resources in innovation in order to provide the best possible experience for residents and to thrive in the current environment where our clients demand the best service possible. Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living reminds us all that it doesn’t matter what age you are, voice technology is a powerful, easy to use tool. There is so much potential to integrate Alexa Smart Properties with property services, care planning and other care and operational systems that it could revolutionise how care providers provide best quality care.”

Nicolas Vanden Abeele, CEO of Ascom Group said: “We are excited to collaborate with Amazon and bring together Alexa Smart Properties and our state-of-the art Ofelia software and mobility solutions - a game-changing solution for senior living.” 

Both residents and staff can simply make requests by voice, which is an intuitive way to interact with technology, no matter what age you are”. He continued, “Alexa Smart Properties has ensured that resident experience remains front and centre of care homes and we’re looking forward to maximising the potential of this technology”. 

Angela Boxall, CEO of Majesticare, a luxury care group utilising Ascom’s solution said, “We’re dedicated to making sure our residents retain a sense of home and belonging when they become part of our Majesticare family. Ensuring friendships remain and staying connected to family is so important for well-being, which is why the introduction of Alexa Smart Properties at our Evesham home is so exciting! Using advancing technology to enable easier contact with Alexa-to-Alexa calling is a huge benefit to our residents, not to mention the ability to ask Alexa what’s on today’s menu and keep up to date with upcoming activities and events within the home”. 

Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living is integrated at select locations and is now available in the UK in Majesticare’s Cavendish Park Care Home with Ascom Software. It is also available at Morris Care Isle Court, an award-winning innovative care home, to residents of The Royal Airforce Association’s Rothbury House and visitors of Blind Veteran’s UK new respite care centre in North Wales. 

Deploying Solutions at Scale with Alexa Smart Properties

Alexa Smart Properties tools and APIs enable Solution Providers to manage and service a fleet of Alexa-enabled devices quickly, remotely, and at scale. Morris Care and The Royal Airforce Association worked with The Digital Line to build skills for their properties, Ascom has worked with Discvision and Blind Veterans UK worked with Vocala. Using Alexa Smart Properties, Solution Providers were able to easily deploy and customise large numbers of Alexa-enabled devices.

Built with Privacy in Mind

Alexa Smart Properties for Senior Living was designed with privacy in mind. No personal information is shared with Alexa to use the device, and voice recordings are not saved. Every Amazon Echo device offers multiple layers of privacy protection, and residents can disable Alexa’s ability to respond to the wake word at any time by simply pressing the Microphone off button on top of their Echo device. 

This article has been published here: The Care Home Environment, ATWorld, Care England.