I have a single parent, living alone, who I could easily go a week without checking in on. To take care of my anxiety around whether or not she's okay, and avoid calling every single day to check in, I'm setting up a service that will send her a text once a day to make sure she's okay. If she doesn't reply, I'll get a notification, and then give her a call to make sure all is well.
Do you have a single, aging parent who you'd like to worry less about? Is this something you'd like to be able to use? My parent is totally comfortable texting, so this wouldn't necessarily work for every aging person (like those who don't have cell phones)! She's in her early 70s, so she's been using a cell phone for a long time.
My hope is that it'll take some stress of me, and not require us to talk every day, even if we have nothing to talk about!
What do you think? What would you like to see from a service like this?
There are already call services that one can use which have been around for years. The call service telephones each client at a certain time each day to make sure they are ok. If the service doesn't get an answer after a few calls, then they call a family member to see where is the client.
I rather be telephoned then text. Oh how I hate to text. But I know how to answer a landline without thinking, and those clients who are very elderly, landline desk top telephones are ingrained in their minds. A cellphone isn't.
The call services sound great. I know my mom doesn't like to answer the phone if she doesn't know the number though!
I think there's a different approach as well. If I'm concerned, I just call. I wouldn't be comfortable leaving the issue of safety up in the air and respond with action only if I didn't receive a callback from my parent. This is kind of a passive way of checking up.
We use medic alert monitors, daily calls, and neighbors who keep an eye out for anything amiss.
I recognize that younger caregivers want to integrate technology but I think it also has to be recognized that older people often don't have any interest in some of these new methods of communication. I'd have to ask what benefit would the elder get in attempting to learn these technologies? It's often difficult to put ourselves in their shoes, but they might think all this tech stuff is a waste of money. (I'm only in my 70s and I think some of it is a waste of money!)