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Thinking Long-Term Care -- Think Technology
Posted by: DeLila Bergan on December 06, 2007
THINKING LONG-TERM CARE -- THINK TECHNOLOGY!
When care givers think about long-term care, technology is not one of the alternatives that typically comes to mind. Well, maybe it should! Care giving technology is not something in the "distant future." It is available TODAY! And it can help care givers improve the quality of care and quality of life of their loved ones.
If you want to keep your loved one independent and to allow him or her to age in place in his or her own home, to keep your loved one connected to family, to know your loved one is okay, to have more time for yourself (the #1 unmet need of care givers), to balance work, family and care giving responsibilities and to reduce your level of stress, then you may want to take a closer look at AttentiveCare, a distance care giving system developed by Caregiver Technologies.
AttentiveCare requires little more than a personal computer, a webcam and a broadband internet connection. Unlike many of the single-use care giving technologies (for example, automated medication dispensers or home monitoring systems), AttentiveCare addresses "caring as a whole." It is specifically designed to address the needs of both care givers and care recipients and the unique living environment in which it will be used. It has proven to be a very cost-effective solution in many care giving situations.
AttentiveCare currently features videoconferencing to help keep your loved one connected to family, reminders to help the care recipient function more independently, a list of current medications to ensure medication compliance, journaling and many other features. More importantly, the care recipient requires no computer skills to effectively use the system. All the controls are on the care giver's system. Existing AttentiveCare users tell other care givers about AttentiveCare and the care giver's first response is, "My mom doesn't know anything about computers." To that, the AttentiveCare user responds, "That's perfect."
AttentiveCare originated out of the personal care giving needs of Ken Nixon (president and founder of Caregiver Technologies) and his two brothers. The three brothers were long-distance care givers for their mother who had Alzheimer's disease. It is a wonderful care giving story. The three brothers, through the use of technology, were able to keep their mother independent and on the family farm in Lavaca, Arkansas, in spite of her Alzheimer's disease, for far longer than would otherwise have been possible. Nixon said, "It is where she was happiest and wanted to stay and to be able to honor her wishes, as a care giver, just makes you feel good."
With sponsorships from the National Institutes of Health and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Nixon has taken this innovative idea and developed AttentiveCare. The product is now available to other care givers. As Mr. Nixon is fond of saying, "Now, our care giving story is just being repeated." The NBC Today Show recently aired a long-distance care giving segment that featured a care giver in Los Angeles, California, who used AttentiveCare to care for her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, some 1500 miles away. The segment shows how instrumental technology can be in meeting the needs of both care givers and the person they care so much about.
So, when you think long-term care, think TECHNOLOGY!
By Ken Nixon, Caregiver Technologies, Inc.
E-mail: wecare@caregivertech.com
Web site: www.caregivertech.com
For more information on long-distance care giving and Caregiver Technologies, please see the Distance Care Giving section of our web site.
