City of Philadelphia Signs Contract With Guardian MPS to Protect Social Workers

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Guardian MPS

We have rigorously tested the Guardian MPS system and the Central Station Monitoring service. We now know that Guardian MPS can measurably increase the safety of our social worker field staff. This is the reason for our investment...

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) November 07, 2013

Guardian MPS is delighted to announce that the City of Philadelphia (Department of Human Services - DHS) has become the first US city to adopt its award- winning Mobile Personal Safety solution. In addition, Guardian MPS has achieved vendor approval for the entire State of Pennsylvania. At the same time Guardian MPS has announced plans to establish its US Headquarters in Philadelphia.

“GuardianMPS is the latest in a long line of innovative, technology companies that are choosing Philadelphia as their home,” said City of Philadelphia Mayor Michael A Nutter. By working with a city government that is open to new ideas and approaches, Guardian MPS discovered that Philadelphia was the natural choice for their U.S. operation. I am excited to welcome yet another British-owned company to the Philadelphia marketplace.”

The City of Philadelphia takes staff safety and well-being seriously. Social Workers, in particular, operate daily in stressful situations throughout the greater city area. A national survey confirmed that 58% of social workers in the US have directly experienced violence at work*. Philadelphia’s social workers want to deliver a high quality service to clients and the City of Philadelphia wants to protect them as they provide this vital support in the community.

A full trial of 27 DHS users has been conducted for 3 months and was highly successful. As a result of this DHS has now confirmed the first phase of a contract with Guardian MPS.

The Guardian MPS solution effectively transforms a broad range of cell and smart phones into dedicated Mobile Personal Safety devices that go far beyond mere ‘app’ technology. With Guardian MPS the user can schedule their activities and timings. If the social worker ‘overstays’ their current appointment, GuardianMPS will contact them to confirm all is well. If they can’t enter a PIN or enter a duress code then the system moves to ‘alarm status’. Guardian MPS dials into the phone (while the phone appears to be off) and listens live to what is happening. Central Station Monitoring, working on behalf of the City, can listen in and advise the police or relevant responders. Guardian MPS also accurately details the device location at the same time to aid in that response.

Anne Marie Ambrose, Commissioner, Philadelphia Department of Human Resources said, “Our social workers do a great job for the City. Their services and dedication are of enormous value to everyone in the community. But they do work in challenging situations so I am excited that we can now help them become safer as they deliver care and support for the people of Philadelphia. We have rigorously tested the Guardian MPS system and the Central Station Monitoring service. We now know that Guardian MPS can measurably increase the safety of our social worker field staff. This is the reason for our investment and commitment and we look forward to a continuing and developing partnership with Guardian MPS.”

For further information on Guardian MPS please contact Rob Rae on 610-389-7559.

For further information on City of Philadelphia please contact Mark McDonald on 215 686 6210.

Note: GuardianMPS is the US subsidiary of Guardian24, a UK company. Guardian24 supplies solutions to the UK mobile and lone worker sectors and is the acknowledged market leader. The Guardian24 subscriber base now exceeds 33,000 users; with approximately 400 public and private sector organizations benefiting from their services. Among their customers are local authorities, healthcare services, housing associations, central government bodies, educational institutions, charities, banking, insurance and construction. Guardian24 and GuardianMPS services are used via a wide range of devices including the Blackberry smartphone, Android smartphone, Windows PDA, cell phone or specialist Lone Worker devices. An iPhone version is due for release shortly. Please visit http://www.guardianmps.com for further information.

*Newhill, PhD, ACSW, 2011

ENDS

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