Papakura Marae is using technology to get ahead of family violence.
Chief executive Tony Kake says the marae already provides a range of support services.
It’s trialing the use of smart watches which can be used by social workers to tell the marae if they’re going into a potentially violent situation, or given to people who may need to raise the alarm.
“It takes just the press of one of the buttons on the smart watch and then it activates it to a call centre, they’re listening on the conversation, recording it and if it escalates they can activate police intervention or go to a supervisor or go to another person to say exactly where they are because it’s GPS-based technology, we know exactly where the person is,” Mr Kake says.
He’s working with medical entrepreneur Sir Ray Avery on the project, which builds on a Medic Alert-type platform.
