Call for innovation from utilities sector to support people living with dementia at home

The Energy Industries Council (EIC) is calling on UK innovators and SMEs to support the utilities industry in transforming the lives of people living with dementia at home.

The initiative aims to bring businesses together with utilities companies to facilitate innovation across the sector, developing new products and services that will help people with the condition to communicate with utilities companies on the phone or online, navigate bills, and protect them from fraud.

The official launch
of the initiative follows on from the Call 4 Action
workshop, a collaboration between the EIC, Cadent, and the
Alzheimer’s Society. 

The workshop, which took
place earlier this month, brought together utility
companies, innovators from different backgrounds, charities, and
experts to raise awareness of the issues faced by those with dementia
in relation to safe access to utilities in the home.  

Denise Massey, managing director
of the EIC, said: “The utilities industry is always evolving, and so we
want to make sure that customers in vulnerable situations are
not left behind as it looks to continue innovating. For us, the way to do
this is to use innovation to solve the specific challenges faced by
the 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK. 

“We hope that
this campaign is the first major step in the creation of meaningful
solutions that support the industry-wide goal of keeping
customers on the priority services register (PSR), such as those
with dementia, living independently in the safety of their own
homes. We are beyond excited to see what the innovation community has
to offer to support this cause.” 

Research undertaken at the Call 4 Action workshop discovered that over half of the attendees had either a partial or no understanding of the challenges surrounding utilities for people with dementia in the UK. 

Attendees also identified
communication and safety as two of the key areas in which
utilities companies could make an impact.

To help encourage
businesses to think about ways they can help improve the delivery
of utilities for these people, the EIC has highlighted some of the key
challenges which the sector must address.

These include: 

• Communication, including
  improving how people with dementia communicate with companies on
  the phone or online, and how they can be prompted to remember security
  information.
• Bills and payments,
  including support navigating bills, providing meter readings,
  understanding payment requirements such as debit/credit balances,
  or support utilising different payment options. 
• Finance,
  including understanding and comparing different company offers, support
  changing providers, and help managing costs. 
• Fraud, in
  particular, supporting people with dementia to prevent them from being
  vulnerable to fraudulent schemes. 
• Safety,
  such as ensuring customers can use utilities safely in their own
  home and that that their safety is not compromised during unplanned
  disconnections.

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