Helping Elderly Parents Stay in Their Homes Independently

Deciding to allow your elderly parents to maintain their independent lifestyle is a tough decision to make. Seniors wish to stick to their old habits and convincing them to move out in favor for a retiree community or care home isn’t something you can pull off easily. Most adults just give up, and let the elderly relatives continue their life. But old age hides many dangers, and no one wants to lose his/her parents due to not having someone close by to help. In case you are in the same shoe, then we’ve collected some tips on finding the middle ground between safety and independence.

When considering your options to make your elderly relative’s home safe, we advise making a list with two columns. One should contain solutions that directly help the seniors maintaining an independent life (smart technology, medical alert systems, med reminders etc.) while the other list of solutions should help you keep an eye on them. Alarms and cameras belong to the latter category, since their sole purpose is to provide peace of mind for you and your elders. When someone tries to break in, the alarm sends a signal to the monitoring center, where security staff notifies you in an instant. As for the cameras, they are connected to a cloud server that allows you to access the feed remotely from your computer or smartphone. Thus you can see for yourself whether your loved ones are happy and healthy.

Current technological advancements widen the possibilities of smart home control, making the residents’ life easier. Equipping a house with different intelligent equipment means that the garage door opens and closes with a press of a button (sparing the elderly from entering and leaving the vehicle for such trivial task); the main door only needs a keyfob, rather than effing about with aiming the keys into the hole; the smart thermostat sets the temperature to an ideal level on its own (sparing elderly couples from hourly long debates); and the lights can be operated from afar. And the best thing is: all activities made by smart units are logged, so you can check on it.

In case you are well-versed in the possibilities of supporting independent elders, then you must have heard of medical alert systems. Such services operate on similar principles as the home security services, since both of them operate a help center where the staff monitors the alarm system and calls for help if needed. However, this doesn’t mean that the two are interchangeable. Some home security companies offer panic buttons alongside their optional hardware, which can be pushed when an elderly feels sick or is in danger. But you should know that it pales in quality of a real medical alert button. Medical alert monitoring staffs are trained to recognize the symptoms of serious health issues, while a medical alert button uses advanced fall detection technology that guarantees automatic signals in case the senior loses consciousness. We recommend subscribing for a professional medical alert care service if your elderly are prone to falling.