Technology Is Helping
Posted by Patti on June 6th, 2006 / Print This Post
More about how technology can help elderly residents.
Keeping an eye on your increasingly frail grandma or other elderly loved one could be getting a whole lot easier.High-tech assisted living centers are all the rage, and now technology can help make your home more user-friendly and safer too, doctors and police say.
The American Geriatrics Society advocates two basic kinds of technology devices that can be used for elderly care — active-intervention devices that monitor vital signs and intervene when necessary, and passive-intervention devices that are computerized and observe patients’ safety without intervention.
According to Dr. Eric Tangalos, a member of the American Geriatrics Society in Rochester, Minn., so-called-smart technologies are a “new phenomenon that fill in the gaps and keep the elderly away from trouble.”
Tangalos said that many properly placed tools can provide important functions for an elderly person, such as user-friendly automatic light sensors and grab bars in bathrooms. Sensors on a bed to turn on a light switch can also be helpful, Tangelos said.
“We recommended smart technology to a lot of patients as well as technologically advanced nursing homes,” he said.
Telemedicine, videoconferencing between patients and their doctors, helps patients get vital medical advice and information without having to travel or to arrange a ride, said Cathy Nall of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Electronic Health Center in Galveston. Patients can also visit with an emergency room doctor before making a potentially unnecessary trip to the emergency room, Nall said.
“It much easier than getting someone who is very fragile in and out of a car,” Nall said. “It is much less stressful.”
Passive technology, such as video and Web cameras, can help curb nursing home abuse and also help keep a watchful eye on elderly people in their homes. Cameras also make the job of proving abuse or neglect a lot easier for law enforcement.
“If it’s on tape, it like catching somebody robbing a store on a surveillance videotape,” Bedford police Lt. Kirk Roberts said. “Though some would argue that you can always edit them, those provide great evidence. It’s just like having an eyewitness that can be replayed over and over again to a jury.”