This is truly special. Business Week has devoted a special report to Aging in Place. We've seen newspaper and magazine articles, usually on the social curiosity or human interest aspect of using technology to help seniors. In this case, there are many, many small vendors and organizations who are investing and slowly growing their businesses that will serve us as we age.
Following the post I did on the Philips call center, one anonymous comment was quite critical of the service, particularly in terms of response time. I assume this was written by a departed Lifeline employee who has joined another company, which is the reason for it being anonymous. Okay, fine.
I want to pose the question -- again. Just because we can set up all kinds of security in our elderly parent's home, is it right to put it there? Saw this from SmartHome's Web Camera section, a Web-Enabled Securelink Elderly Kit -- this turns out to be a PERS pendant -- the camera is extra.
A while ago I considered the question of monitoring a person (wearable devices) or monitoring the place in whcih someone resides (remote sensor-based monitoring). From that entry: "Each requires someone to educate seniors on the role of the devices on or around them so that they can actively participate -- and opt in to the idea of being monitored." I am glad that I wrote that. Here's an example where that did not happen:
The nursing home lobbyists have clearly got the attention of the Florida legislature. In the land of the sun and the frailest elderly, the nursing home lobby has persuaded state senator Mike Bennett to file a bill that would eliminate department of health and safety inspections (restaurants would be inspected more often than nursing homes).
Is the PERS device -- press a button around your neck and a service is dialed -- eventually headed for obsolescence? Parks Associates has predicted a basically flat growth path for PERS devices through 2013. Maybe that's so if security companies -- not healthcare companies -- set the replacement and extensible path. Here's another established and financially healthy security company, Visonic, that's been around for a long time -- now in the "PERS-and-beyond" market, aka the home monitoring market, with its Amber line.
I was surprised at an article in today's Times that offered no solutions to the problem it raised: that more men take the lead in caring for their elderly parents. From the article: "The Alzheimer’s Association and the National Alliance for Caregiving estimate that men make up nearly 40 percent of family care providers now, up from 19 percent in a 1996 study by the Alzheimer’s Association.
