Smart Technology Helps Older Adults Continue Living Independently

Reproduced with kind permission from Integrative Care Management LLC @www.CareManager4U.com

Three out of every four seniors today live in their own homes and, not surprisingly, the great majority (76%) would like to stay there; although some may be forced by finances to do so. The current COVID-19 pandemic and its dramatic effects on retirement communities is only reinforcing older adults’ reluctance to give up aging in their own homes.

Understandably, there is always the worry for the families of older adults and particularly worry for those seniors living alone. The advancement in artificial intelligence or “AI” as a tool to assist caregivers monitor aging loved ones is something that I have been interested in and using with clients off and on for the last 8 years. I hope that you will find this information to be a useful introduction to some benefits of implementing an AI system.

There are many reasons why it may be difficult to check in personally on mom or dad (geographical reasons, time constraints, enforced social distancing) so an AI system which notifies you if there is an issue with your older parent is of great value. An AI system can give caregivers peace of mind as well as provide the senior a sense of security knowing that someone will come to their help should they need it.

Companies such as Stack Care, Billy, SensorsCall and CarePredict are producing the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) and motion sensor technology devices for seniors. Using sophisticated data science, AI is able to monitor and interpret activity patterns, then simply and easily show if a loved one is sleeping well, is visiting the bathroom too often, whether his/her typical patterns have changed, or even seeing the room temperatures to make sure everything is set for the ideal climate.

It is advances in complex AI that allow monitoring systems to do this with motion sensors - like the ones that open the supermarket doors - placed in the bedroom, bathroom and favorite room (where Mom or Dad hangs out most during the day). Algorithms constantly search for anomalies and occurrences or events and when something is spotted (this is where the Artificial Intelligence “understands” that there may be a problem) the notification platform issues an alert back to the family or the caregiver via their phone.

Advanced systems, such as Stack Care, can continuously learn and adjust over time, helping to maintain accuracy as people age and routines change. The best also help maintain privacy and dignity by avoiding any use of cameras or microphones, so your senior loved one can go ahead and hang out in their favorite lime green pajama all day long!

Benefits to using AI:

• It preserves the older adult’s independence and dignity, while discretely monitoring his/her wellbeing.
• Offers peace of mind to family members.
• AI can detect small changes in pattern that caregivers may not catch.
• Early intervention often helps avoid an emergency.
• Advanced systems, like Stack Care, are unobtrusive with small and silent sensors.
• Privacy and freedom since the system should just work in the background with no cameras.
• Automatic daily updates which monitors any changes in patterns.
• Several family members/caregivers can have access to the app and are able to communicate with each other via the app.

A product that continues to get better after you buy it...

Here at StackCare we're committed to enabling privacy and dignity for seniors living alone while providing peace of mind for their families. Part of that commitment is always looking for new features that we can add to StackCare and we'll continue to roll out software upgrades free of charge as we turn new ideas into a reality.

One of our customers asked us why all notifications and alerts had to be negative, couldn't StackCare just provide a regular message that everything was ok? Stack's engineers and marketing team got to work and the Daily Update was created.

Mid-morning every day a notification will pop-up on your phone just letting you know how things look. As with all our notifications you can also decide to turn it off if you don’t need/want it and you can also add additional family members at no charge so that they can also know Mom/Dad/Grandma is ok.

At the best of times we all live busy, hectic lives and seniors don't always want to be bothered by phone calls asking about health and wellness. StackCare @home lets family members and/or caregivers see at a glance that activity patterns are typical, bathroom visits haven’t changed and that Mom/Dad is sleeping well; you’ll see whether you need to follow up and you’ll know what questions to ask.

With peace of mind that all is OK, you can go ahead and call your senior loved one(s) and chat about the movie they watched, or the grandkids, or a new recipe…

Here at StackCare, we’ll keep working to make sure you have a product that continues to get better after you buy it!

Nigel Mould, CEO - StackCare

Dealing With The Unexpected

Here at StackCare, we think a lot about how to be sure our families and seniors get the information they need at the times when they need it. We work hard to present high quality, relevant metrics in a way that’s informative but not overwhelming. We want families to know enough to help their senior loved ones, but not so much that their privacy is diminished.

I am StackCare’s principal data scientist. I’m also a future customer.

My Mom and Dad are in their mid 70s. They’re still doing really well and are completely active and independent. While they might be more independent than most of our seniors, we thought they might enjoy seeing what our product could do and we’d benefit from their unvarnished feedback; they kindly agreed to join the group who were testing our products.

By testing with my own parents I expected that we would confirm algorithm behavior and be checking the user experience, as with our other testers. Indeed, this has been the case.

This week though, that test turned out to have very real, personal value to me - and to my parents. My parents and I unexpectedly experienced the peace of mind that the StackCare system hopes to bring to our families.

Here’s our story:

Mom had major foot surgery last September and has been recovering for months. She’s been moving more slowly than usual which makes her seem as though she is less independent than she was before surgery. The good news is that she’s finally, albeit slowly, regaining her activity level..

Now that Mom is walking on her own again and can drive, Dad decided it was finally OK to head out of town to take care of some of their other projects. Mom was proud to be recovered enough to be independent again! Dad and I still worried she’d hurt her fragile foot and experience a setback. The timing of our StackCare system test at their house turned out to be coincidentally perfect. I added Dad to their site so he could keep an eye on Mom too. It’s very sweet to see how much they care for each other. I live nearby, but responsibilities for my own family and work mean that I can’t get over to help Mom every day. I’d drop everything if I had to, but it’s nice to be able to carry on normally.

Just two days after Dad left, Mom’s cell phone completely stopped working!

She said it went into “paperweight mode.” She let Dad know, and let all of us kids know via email that she needed us to send her all of our contact information (phone numbers!) since it was lost on her broken phone. She was quietly and independently solving her own issues and, not wanting to fight the crowds at the mall, she also waited a couple of days more until after the weekend to replace her phone.

I’d have worried more, but when I peeked at the StackCare app, I could see that everything was OK. I didn’t see any reasons to worry. She wanted her independence and to solve things her way. And I didn’t have to take any time off work. And I didn’t worry. We both got what we needed.

The story doesn’t end there.

When I called her to congratulate her on her newly recovered independence and ask about her shiny new phone, she confessed that her landline was only functional for incoming calls! It turns out, the only way for her to get a message out for those few days was email!

She had been completely without a way to communicate out except for email or using the car!

Retroactive worry immediately welled up. All the “what-ifs” and “might-have-beens” raced through my mind.

But then, I remembered that the whole time she was alone, I was able to know that she was fine. The algorithms worked. And if there had been an issue, I’d have seen it in her data or gotten a notification.

The feeling of peace-of-mind was much more than a tagline to me. It was real.

I hope you’ll take the chance to try it out.

Malia Beaulieu, Chief Data Scientist - StackCare