In Spain, around half a million mobile phones are sold every year, mainly to the elderly. This sector of the population chooses this type of device because of its simplicity and ease of use when it comes to keeping in touch with their immediate environment, but even so, they are often unable to configure their settings or customise the different options they incorporate. Faced with this situation, SPC, as the leading brand in mobile telephony in Spain and an expert in the senior segment, has developed a pioneering application to help and care for the elderly or those who are less familiar with technology remotely. How? By remotely managing their ‘dumb’ phones.

 

What is SPC Care?

SPC Care, a technological innovation that has never been developed before, will allow relatives or friends of elderly people to remotely intervene in the settings and management of their phone to adapt it to their personal needs and to receive alerts in certain situations that could compromise the well-being of the elderly person. This initiative is exclusive to SPC brand mobile phones and is already fully implemented in SPC POLARIS: the first basic phone for the elderly to be launched on the market that is fully integrated with the app, with other models to follow as the brand renews its catalogue.

What are the benefits of SPC Care for the elderly?

The new app will improve and facilitate the relationship of the elderly, not only with technology, but also with their loved ones. It shows the location without the elderly person having to do anything on their part, just carry their SPC mobile phone with them (this option is only available if the elderly person's mobile phone has GPS).

With SPC Care, nothing changes for our elderly people, but everything changes for their relatives, who will now be able to lend them a hand by using their mobile phone as if they were by their side without compromising their autonomy and reinforcing their independence. All of this provides a sense of security for the elderly, who also feel useful and like members of a digitised society in which their family and friends are also involved.

 

What are the benefits of SPC Care for family members?

Using it is very easy: after downloading from the Play Store or Apple Store, the application itself shows, in a very intuitive way, the three steps to follow to synchronise with the compatible SPC mobile phone: registration of the caregiver, registration of the elderly person and pairing with the senior phone. Once the process, which only takes a few minutes, has been completed, a caregiver, from their smartphone, can:

• Help that senior relative with the configuration of their mobile phone. Anytime, anywhere they can access the settings and make changes such as raising or lowering the ringer volume, turning the SOS button on or off, managing the contacts associated with the SOS button, raising the brightness of their screen, adding contacts to their address book, setting up direct memories and more.
• Know where you are. SPC Care allows you to see the exact location without the elderly person having to send their location (depending on the mobile phone model).
• Ensure their safety. SPC Care alerts you if you have missed calls, if a new message has arrived and sends alerts if something is wrong. For example, if prolonged inactivity is detected, if the mobile battery is about to run out or if the elderly person has pressed the SOS button.
• Protect them against spam and unknown contacts. SPC Care allows you to remotely configure the blacklist of the mobile phone and mark SMS as read and calls as seen so that the elderly person does not interact with potentially fraudulent messages or contacts.
• Keep track of their health. Record upcoming medical appointments to easily remember their check-ups or consultations, the name of the medication they take or check the number of daily steps they have taken. (Depending on mobile phone model).
• Share management with other caregivers. Collaborative care is possible, which provides the peace of mind that there will always be someone available to help and share the responsibility. The app can also be used to link different phones so that the same person can care for more than one elderly person.

 

 

 

First steps in using SPC Care: caregiver data, elder data and linkage

Once the application has been installed on a smartphone, the first steps to complete are:

Create the caregiver's account in SPC Care: name, email, telephone number...

Create the profile of the elderly person as a ‘Cared-for person’. You can do this in two ways:

• create the profile of a new carer by entering their details: name, date of birth, telephone number...
• add a profile of a cared-for person created by another user in SPC Care through their ID (this ID can be found in the administrator's app that manages this profile).

Next, all that's left is to link the device of the elderly person being cared for, which only takes a few seconds:

.- scan the QR shown on the elderly person's mobile phone from the SPC Care menu on their phone, or

enter the IMEI (this is a unique number that identifies each mobile phone worldwide).

Both the QR and the IMEI can be found in the menu of the senior phone; go to the ‘SPC Care’ section and then to the ‘Linking’ option. You can also find the IMEI on the box of the phone by dialling *#06# on the device if that's easier or under the battery of the device.

 

 Once linked, the caregiver can manage the phone remotely from anywhere.

Family members or relatives of the senior can choose between different levels of ‘caregivers’, which will allow them to have more or less control and management power over the senior's phone:
.- administrator: this role is automatically assigned to the creator of the senior's profile, although it can later be changed if the latter designates another administrator (the app requires that there must always be a main administrator) and has full control over all the senior phone's remote management options and over the ‘caregiver's’ profile, and authorises the entry of new ‘collaborators’ or administrators.
.- collaborator: has the same functions as the administrator, except for managing roles of other carers and deleting the senior's profile.
.- guest: can only see from the app how the senior phone is configured without being able to modify or control any parameter.

Once the app has been linked to the senior's phone, the main screen of the application is accessed, where the most interesting information to ensure the safety of the person being cared for can be found. In addition to knowing how much battery their phone has and whether it is being charged, it shows their location and the time of the last update of that location. It is also possible to force a query to know their exact location in real time. From this home screen it is also possible to remotely ring the elderly person's phone to locate them easily and a list of the latest notifications received is displayed.

 

Use and operation of SPC Care

1.- Make remote settings

From the ‘Device’ section of SPC Care, adjust all the settings of the cared person's mobile phone:

Phone:

Activate or deactivate the Bluetooth and mobile data connection.

Select the language in which you want the device's menus to appear.

Lock the phone's power off option with the ON/OFF button.

Activate/deactivate the option to answer/hang up a call when opening and closing the flip (*only on mobile phones with flip, such as SPC POLARIS)

Set up actions on the up, down, left, right and OK buttons of the mobile phone

Set automatic power off and power on

Install software updates that may be pending

Display:

Adjust screen brightness

Customise the font size

Choose the format of the senior phone menu.

 

Sound: from this function you can adjust the volume and/or type of sound of:

Calls

Earpiece

Keys

Messages

 

SOS:

Activate/deactivate SOS function

Activate/deactivate the alarm siren

Activate/deactivate sending of emergency SMS messages

Configure emergency message

Configure emergency contacts

 

Alarms: up to 3 alarms can be configured to sound on the ‘care’ telephone.

 

Power-on management:

Reboot the device (Attention! It is recommended that the senior phone does not have a security PIN so that the person being cared for does not have to intervene when restarting the device and does not have to enter it by hand; until it is entered, the phone will not be understood to be switched on).

Switch off the device (Caution! If the cared-for person's phone is switched off, they will not be able to receive any commands from the app. As with the previous option, it is advisable that the elderly person's phone does not have a PIN).

 

2.- Contact and communication management

From the ‘Contacts’ section of SPC Care, adjust various options on the caregiver's device related to:

 

Calls:

Access to the list of calls, distinguishing between calls made, answered and missed.

Mark all calls as read

Adding that contact to the blacklist

 

Messages:

Access to received SMS and mark as read

Know the sender data, date/time and content of the message.

Add the contact directly to the blacklist

Delete the message

 

.- Contacts: add or delete

Blacklist: add phone number to the blacklist and manage its options:

Block reception of messages

Block receiving calls

.- Direct memories: configure the contact associated with each direct memory of the mobile phone.

Quick memories: configure keys from 2 to 9 and associate a contact to each of them.

 

3.- Locate him/her

The application allows us to know the location of our cared-for relative at any time. In this way, we can know their location if they need someone to come and help them and they cannot or do not know exactly where they are.

 

4.- Receive activity and safety alerts

SPC Care receives notifications to warn of missed calls or new messages on the elderly person's mobile phone. It also sends alerts if the battery is low, if the device has been inactive for a prolonged period of time or if our cared relative has pressed the SOS button.

5.- Monitor their health

The ‘carers’ find in this section of the app a place to keep a record of the next medical appointments of the cared-for relative to easily remember their check-ups or consultations, the name of the medication they are taking and their medication regimen, or access other health functions that their mobile phone incorporates, such as the number of steps taken per time zone or the weekly comparison of steps per day in the case of SPC POLARIS.

SPC POLARIS, the first phone compatible with SPC Care

The revolutionary app comes with SPC POLARIS, the first phone for the elderly that is compatible with SPC Care. In this way, this key phone can be completely configured remotely, without the need to be physically with the elderly person or for them to carry out any action with the mobile phone.

SPC POLARIS is a basic flip phone with 4G connection which guarantees better coverage and better sound for calls.
The phone also incorporates GPS, which makes it reachable from the app, and SOS button which, after a long press, automatically makes calls to the 5 defined contacts making up to 3 rounds of calls if no answer is received. (Attention! It is recommended that the contacts configured in the SOS function do not have their voicemail activated because, if on receiving an emergency call, the SOS function will understand that the call has been answered and the process will be cut off at that precise moment so it will not continue making more calls).

This new device for the elderly is compatible with hearing aids and has a built-in charging base, making it easy to charge and keep in sight at all times. It includes 3 customisable direct memories to which a contact can be associated so that, by pressing on each of these memories, the phone automatically calls its linked contact. It also incorporates 8 programmable quick memories on keys 2 to 9 where eight additional direct contacts can be associated.
POLARIS also has an address book with 2000 contacts, a rear camera, the possibility of inserting a Micro SD card to extend its storage capacity and a series of practical functions of interest to senior users: torch, radio, alarm, hands-free or calculator, among others.