As our parents get older, safety plays a bigger role in their lives and ours.Grab bars and fall-alert buttons are important but today there’s an array of sophisticated products that can help seniors age in place.
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- Personal Emergency Response Systems or PERS. Traditional fall-alerts utilize a button attached to a pendant or wrist bracelet. When pressed, the button activates a telephone that auto dials a central monitoring station that summons help. But what if the user forgets to wear the device or is too forgetful or confused to push the button? The new PERS technology detects the difference between falling and bending or stooping down to pick something up and appropriately triggers an automatic response for medical help. These new devices are chest straps, worn under clothing similar to a heart monitor.
- Medication dispensers that notify a caregiver if a dosage is missed. Taking prescribed medicine in a timely manner is a problem for many seniors but is often a requirement of independent living. One of the latest medication management tools is a countertop dispenser that’s about the size of a blender. The device is loaded with enough meds for several days and coded to deliver the right amount of medication at the appropriate times. The manufacturer of the dispenser is supplied with the patient’s dosing schedule. Many models notify a caregiver by phone, email or text if a dosage is missed.
- Shoes with embedded GPS to track seniors. The system is implanted in the heel of an otherwise normal shoe, allows caregivers to set up alerts if a person strays outside of a predefined area and lets them monitor the wearer.
Do your parents prefer to stay at home and remain independent? If so, you may want to discuss this option with their primary care provider as the best choice often depends on their medical condition as well as their budget and personal preferences. But if your parents choose to stay at home there are many devices available today to help make that choice easier to sustain.
