No matter whether your elderly loved one is in a care home or still in their own home, it can be a worry. While you have to get on with your own life, you still need the peace of mind of knowing that your parent or grandparent is in good health. Here are some devices that can allow your elderly relative a measure of independence while ensuring that they have help when they need it.
Medical Alert Bracelet
If your elderly relative has a medical condition that can make it hard for them to seek help themselves, invest in a personal medical alert system: an alert bracelet or necklace for them to wear at all times. This way, if they fall or become ill, others will know exactly who to call and how to treat them until medical professionals arrive. These pieces can be combined with a small but powerful tracker, so you can keep track of your relative from a distance, simply by tapping on an app.
Personal Alarm
A personal alarm makes a loud noise when it is triggered, and this can be enough to summon aid when it is needed.
Interior cameras
Like personal trackers, interior cameras are a bit intrusive, but they can offer enormous peace of mind, allowing you to peek in at your loved one and make sure that they are up and about, rather than ill and in need of help.
Pull-string Alarms
Fit out your elderly relative’s home with an alarm system that connects to the carer’s station – most elder care homes already have these in every room. This way, if the older person has a fall and cannot quite get back onto their feet, they can pull the easily accessible cord and summon assistance. These pull-strings sometimes tie in with a two-way communication system, so the carers can ask what the problem is as soon as the string is pulled. They can also offer reassurance and a timeline for the arrival of the ambulance or carer.
Crash Mats
Older people tend to lose their balance readily, which can lead to frequent falls. Unfortunately, older bones tend to break more easily, and dislocations are a fairly common result of falls. Using thick, dense-cell foam mats next to the bed, and perhaps near favourite chairs is a good way to ensure a soft landing when falls do occur. The older patient might still suffer a bruise or two, or get a bit of a fright, but they should survive their fall without a broken bone.
Hip Protector Pants
If placing mats is not feasible – after all, they can become trip hazards in their own right! – then you could opt for protective padded clothing, such as hip protector pants. These close fitting shorts offer dense protection in the area most usually responsible for hip fractures in the elderly, absorbing and spreading the shock to dramatically reducing the impact of the fall.
Health Monitors
In the age of the Fitbit, when everyone is monitoring their resting heart rate, testing their personal best and drawing pictures using GPS trackers on their morning commute, it only makes sense that elder care can benefit from the same technology. As well as providing an alert to a third-party in the event of ill-health, these monitors are comprehensively beneficial in elder care for a number of reasons. They look like a watch or a necklace and can usually be worn at all times, and they can monitor heartrate and blood pressure readings, inform the patient when to take their medication, and they can also include a GPS tracker, so dementia patients can quickly be found and returned home when they wander off, as can happen.
Anti-Wander Alarms
These devices, usually in pairs, are placed either side of a doorway, and sent an alert or make a loud noise when someone walks through the doorway. If your elderly relative is living with you and tends to wander, you can set these in place so you are alerted should they leave the home for any reason.
The future of elder care could be very different. Apparently serious research is underway into providing support robots in the future, humanoid figures who will ‘look after’ an elderly person, and monitor their basic health and nutrition as well as supplying a kind of company for them. But until then, care homes in Devon are a wonderful way to ensure that your elderly person’s needs are met, and that they are safe, well-nourished, and cared for.
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