Monitoring Technology

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A special thanks to Chris Tyler with At Home 2 Stay. You can call him at 402.510.5626.

People prefer to live at home where it's familiar, comfortable, and affordable.  At Home Access Solutions, we can help families modify the physical environment to make it as safe and easy to use as possible, but we recognize that may not be everything that is needed for some situations.

Any person can fall or get sick, but someone who is either older, isolated, or both is at greater risk for serious consequences.   For instance, take a look at these grim CDC statistics about the consequences of a senior falling and remaining on the ground without help.

• If a senior falls and remains on the floor more than four to five hours, he/she could spend up to 18 days in a hospital or rehab facility. 
• If a senior remains on the floor overnight after a fall, he/she could spend up to 30 days in a hospital or rehab facility.

(Source: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

 Having someone close by just in case they are needed is a solution, but not always practical for families who provide care for older loved ones.  Frankly, many seniors I know, prefer their privacy and routine and don’t want to include a person watching over them.

Terrific technology such as personal emergency response systems exist which a person can use to notify others in an emergency, but they must be willing and able to “push the button”.  Recently a long distance caregiver told me that she couldn’t persuade her mother to use an emergency response system because her mother didn’t want an ambulance pulling up outside her door.  We can, from our own perspective, argue that embarrassment in front of the neighbors would be the least of our worries in the case of a fall, but it was a significant obstacle this person gave to her daughter the caregiver.   Among the overwhelming numbers of people who have used personal emergency response systems successfully to call for help and to minimize the problems following a fall or sudden illness at home, we do hear about the cases where people haven’t been alert enough or physically capable of operating the emergency button.  In these cases additional monitoring might have been a good addition to the emergency response system.

There is also the problem of detecting gradual changes in abilities or behavior that can eventually lead up to serious issues, before they get out of hand.  Many long distance caregivers rely on phone conversations and occasional visits and aren’t able to see the small warning signs until a true emergency has arisen. There are small daily tasks like remembering medications at the right time, getting enough to eat when there aren’t other people around to enjoy preparing meals for, etc.  that a person living alone might start to miss.   Long distance caregivers wouldn’t see these changes until the situation has become noticeable or critical.  This is another situation where monitoring technology may be useful.

Monitoring systems have been around a long time.  I have several clients who tell me about their old-fashioned, informal method of monitoring is to make sure someone knows that they have gotten up for another day.  They open their blinds and watch for their neighbor to open their blinds.  If the blinds don’t go up, the designated family member is called.  Having a network is great, but now there is technology that is significantly more reliable and more sensitive to small changes that having your neighbor watch for you to open your blinds.  We’ve interviewed Chris Taylor from Home2Stay in this video and we encourage you to research all of the emerging long distance monitoring that will make it possible for people to stay at home where they are in familiar, economical, and SAFE surroundings.

Use technology to make living at home safer and easier

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A special thanks to Chris Tyler with At Home 2 Stay. You can call him at 402.510.5626.

Technology can make safe aging in place possible. "Aging in Place” is a broad term that defines living independently – that is, living where a person wants to live. Most of us chose the homes we’ve lived in for years, but that older home was not designed to accommodate the needs of most older people. The adult children, or caregivers, of people who are aging in place often worry if their parents are living as safely as possible.

Home Modifications such as handrails, walk- in or roll- in showers, and grab bars can make homes safer and easier to use. Modifications remove or minimize environmental barriers for people with balance, strength, sensory, or mobility limitations. Simple technology can also be used with structural home modifications to make everyday living safer and easier. For instance, imagine the lights turning on automatically when you get out of bed. That would make moving around the house at night safer for anyone, but would be especially helpful for older individuals. As we age, muscles that control pupil size and reaction to light, lose some strength. Seeing well in dim light becomes harder. In addition, the pupil is less able to adjust to varying light conditions. Gradually increasing light in dark pathways may significantly reduce the risk of falling.

Unless a person is interested in technology for technology’s sake, you need to introduce devices that meet a basic need or that do something that they want to do, if you want to successfully incorporate technology into a person’s routine. It is helpful if the device looks and feels familiar and easy according to Karen Stabiner in the article, “ Elder Tech: What’s Important”. http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/elder-tech-whats-important/

At Home Access Solutions, we help people and their families identify solutions that will enable people to age in place successfully. To augment our design, equipment and remodeling services we work with other specialty companies such as, At Home 2 Stay. We hope you enjoy the interview with Chris Tyler and will either give him or us a call if you want to learn more about harnessing technology for safer and more independent living.

Claw Foot Tub Conversion

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Here’s my joke for the day. What is the difference between climbing out of a hole in the ground and climbing out of a bathtub? Answer: None, except you get to wear clothes when you climb out of the hole.

Ok, I know that isn’t hilarious, but it is essentially true. Many people who sit in the floor of the tub have difficulty getting up again. There are many reasons, but the two primary reasons I’ve seen in my environmental modification practice is that they either don’t have sufficient upper body strength or they have hip or knee limitations or pain. There are many pieces of equipment and modifications to choose from. Solutions can range in cost from under a hundred dollars to thousands of dollars depending upon what you need, how you want the project to look, and your budget.

One type of tub that people often call me about is the clawfoot tub. While clawfoot tubs are making resurgence in popularity because of their beauty and depth, many of my clients would like nothing more than to get rid of them. The tall wall is hard for them to get in and out of and they’ve developed difficulty or a fear of sitting down in them and not being able to get out again without help. Many times there is no shower and they feel like they have no options to sitting on the floor of the tub and climbing over the tall tub wall in order to get clean.

This is conversion we did recently on a limited budget to increase safety and update the bathroom at the same time. This particular homeowner had never had a tub with a shower and was interested in having one. She was also experiencing increasing difficulty getting in and out of the tub and felt unsafe. We replaced the tub faucet with a kit that included a faucet and a shower head and good quality round curtain ring. We used three clear curtain liners to protect the window and walls as well as to continue to let as much light in as possible. The homeowner will be purchasing a single pretty curtain to match the new wall paint a Rebuilding Together volunteer group is doing for her soon. We used a Superpole with Superbar from Healthcraft to provide a stable, vertical grip when she is stepping in and out of her shower since she has the mobility and strength to swing her legs over the tub wall if she has something to hold onto while leaning forward. The horizontal bar of the system juts through two of the curtain liners to provide a horizontal safety support while she is standing and showering. She is looking forward to the convenience of a shower, but she would still like to soak occasionally so she will use the horizontal bar grab bar we put on the wall to support herself while rolling to get up on a knee and then stand.

There are some other ways to deal with a clawfoot tub other than replacing it. Each person has unique abilities and goals, so answers are never one-size-fits-all. Stay with us for future blogs and we can explore solutions together or give us a call and set an appointment for an in home consultation to help you climb out of your “hole-in –the-ground” or tub.