At a recent trade show, AT&T announced its digital options to allow caregivers to monitor their elderly relatives. Digital Life Care is designed for children who want to keep an eye on their elderly parents without moving in with them or sending them to an assisted living or skilled nursing facility. While it is not designed to physically take care of them, it will let caregivers know whether or not elderly parents are doing tasks needed to take care of themselves, such as taking their medicine, getting out of bed, leaving the water running, etc.
Hmmm......what do you think about digitalizing Grandma and Grandpa??? I guess robots are next???
As a member of AARP, I receive a monthly publication and there was one last year that discussed this very topic. My 89 year old mother lives alone and has the "First Response" alarm system if she falls etc, so that medical care is readily available. She is totally mentally with it and able to take care of herself for now. The family the AARP article discussed was one in which both parents had some chronic illness that had impaired them. The adult child lived a great distance from the parents and used the technology so that medications were being monitored, meal preparation was being monitored, the home health aide checked in. We have to realize a few things here. One is that not everyone has the funds to turn over to a nursing home for life care, adult children are not always able to care for their aging parents, and those who are not able to care for themselves need extra care or monitoring. Believe it or not there are some areas of our country where care services are not available. I would be skeptical about the invasion of my mother's privacy, I would be appreciative that there was some way of monitoring her. Like most of technology there are good and bad aspects. One interesting question should be how this would affect the LTC facilities?
For people saying it does not provide privacy,what makes you think the nursing home/ALF has more privacy?
I don't necessarily think this has more/less privacy then ALF/NH, but it has the potential to have less. I wonder if they can turn it off when they wish to? In a NH you can close your door for privacy. How can you turn off a camera?
What if family members use this as a way to control/abuse their elderly parents/grandparents?
If a person agrees to this and wants it in their home then I suppose they have the right to make that decision. I agree with other posters though that if someone requires this level of monitoring then perhaps they need a higher level of care. Home health, meals on wheels, life alerts, those are all potential ways to keep someone at home and independent. Not sure this level of surveillance is a good idea. Just my feelings.
firstinfamily, RN
790 Posts
As a member of AARP, I receive a monthly publication and there was one last year that discussed this very topic. My 89 year old mother lives alone and has the "First Response" alarm system if she falls etc, so that medical care is readily available. She is totally mentally with it and able to take care of herself for now. The family the AARP article discussed was one in which both parents had some chronic illness that had impaired them. The adult child lived a great distance from the parents and used the technology so that medications were being monitored, meal preparation was being monitored, the home health aide checked in. We have to realize a few things here. One is that not everyone has the funds to turn over to a nursing home for life care, adult children are not always able to care for their aging parents, and those who are not able to care for themselves need extra care or monitoring. Believe it or not there are some areas of our country where care services are not available. I would be skeptical about the invasion of my mother's privacy, I would be appreciative that there was some way of monitoring her. Like most of technology there are good and bad aspects. One interesting question should be how this would affect the LTC facilities?