When my mom passed away a few years ago my dad was left living on his own in our old family home in about 200 miles from us. He agreed with me and my husband that it would be good to have him closer to us so we moved him down to our village in a house 10 minutes from ours. It was great for me to know I could keep a closer eye on him and make sure he was ok - and good for dad as he could see us and his grandchildren more often.
I could see that he was becoming more frail but he has always been a very independent man and he didn’t feel ready for any sort of care. I was left wondering what I could do to ensure that he really was ok when he was on his own. A friend mentioned StackCare and it sounded like a great solution!
Installing StackCare in my dad’s home was dead simple, as was setting up the app on my phone. The sensors in his home are small and unobtrusive. It quickly got to know dad’s normal behaviors – his times for going to bed, getting up and visiting the bathroom for example. If he deviates from these norms it tells me and we can check to see if there’s a problem.
StackCare really came into its own after dad had a nasty bladder infection. After a brief hospital stay he came home and had to use a catheter for a short while, but the medication he was also on made him confused. I could see on the StackCare app that dad had had a terribly restless first night home and, as the app knows what is normal behavior for my dad, it sent me an alert to say he had been visiting the bathroom much more than usual. This was more than enough for me to check-in, and to my horror in his state of confusion he’d damaged the catheter and so I got him back to the hospital straight away. Without StackCare we wouldn’t have known exactly what had gone on, and maybe not even known at all for some time either. The information StackCare gave us was really valuable in knowing what had actually gone on during that night.
I love the reassurance that StackCare gives me. It’s incredibly clever and it does all the work for you. Dad loves having it in the house too as he knows that we can keep an eye on him, but from a distance, so he keeps his independence whilst feeling secure. He likes that there are no cameras involved, so he doesn’t feel like he’s being spied on!
StackCare is a great solution for us, it allows my dad to stay independent in his own home for that much longer and gives us another level of reassurance that he really is ok.
Julie (we changed her name for privacy reasons) kindly gave StackCare permission to reproduce her story. As we publish this, her Dad is doing great and enjoying his continuing independence.