About Caretecs
Dylan Martlew
I run Caretecs supported by my wife Kate Towers (she’s in the picture). I have many years practical experience in care technologies covering assessing, prescribing, installing and training. I provide consultancy services including service design and product development and I’ve worked as a consultant for the leading care technology sector organisation the TEC Services Association (TSA).
How Caretecs came about
I recognised that state services were only able to provide basic solutions and I saw the opportunity to provide high quality care technology directly to people. I started researching in 2009 and developed a comprehensive understanding of the technologies available. In 2011 we set up Avon Telecare to provide a high quality care technology service directly to the public.
While we had some success it became clear that there were major barriers to uptake: people didn’t know that care technology existed and they didn’t know what it could do, they didn’t like technology and they didn’t expect to pay for services. Quite a challenge!
We developed real expertise working directly with people at the practical end of delivery. Building on this we moved to providing training and services to care providers, local authorities, the NHS, housing associations and colleges. Some providers really took it on board but many were too hard-pressed to make real changes.
In 2017/18 I took time out to care for my parents; a fertile ground for testing care technology! In 2019 we set up Caretecs and resumed providing services with a focus on Amazon’s Alexa in care contexts.