Nursing Homes Go High-Tech

mattlary writes "Here's an interesting article about a tracking system being installed in a retirement community. The system can track where residents are anywhere in the campus, and also uses cameras to keep an eye on residents. The community also contains numerous sensors so staff can track residents' activity."

Refrigerator Door

[Rick and Roll]

Putting sensors on a refrigerator door to see if someone is out and about is a great idea. Sure, after the fact it's very obvious, but most innovations are, after the fact.

The alert system also sounds very cool. Especially its ability to work in the forested area. Not a bad facility.

Glad to see they have creative people working there, that understand human behavior. They must be very well-versed in user interfaces.

Re:what TFA didnt mention

[Trillan]

Great! My mother works in a long term care facility, and the horror stories of what other employees do there makes me quite happy about this. If nothing else, it will hopefully help reveal who left a resident in a bath tub alone for several hours so they could go for a long lunch... something they very often can't tell you themselves.

I work with elderly patients on a daily basis....

[IanDanforth]

I can tell you a few things about the elderly. Most of them make the decision eventually to get into assisted living facilities. Its not their kids, or anyone pushing them. If they live a long time alone, have a spouse die, or see declining health in their partner. Assisted living becomes a real, and valuable, option.

Now the participants I deal with are all cognitively aware for the most part, but even the sharp ones will get lost walking up and down a short corridor. Over the age of 80 there is a steep decline, though you'd be amazed at how active people are late into their 70s!

Only a few of the men I've talked to would take up something like this device willingly, but most if not all would love their spouses to have it. And I'm sure the wives feel similarly (I only get to see the men).

Would I want such a device? Probably not, but then again I am intimately familiar with what a hip fracture does to someone, and how scary even mild dementia can be.

-Ian

Re:Sad...

[ExistentialFeline]

My grandfather learned to use a computer at 88 or so. He died this year at 91. He mostly used the computer to read his home town newspaper online and write emails, though I imagine he did some other websurfing. I offered to do stuff like play cards online with him but he never took me up on the offer. Of course I think my uncle gave him some equipment that was kinda unreliable so he was offline on a more frequent basis than normal. One of his big problems was that he was pretty much perfectly sound of mind of mind but that there wasn't much of anyone to talk to at the facilities except the nurses because most of the other residents weren't "fully there" anymore.

About 20 years ago...

[Gordonjcp]

... my late father developed a radio alarm beacon deelie for nursing homes. The nursing home staff he showed it to thought it was great - a really handy thing. The "higher-ups" were far from convinced - "Oh, we can't have that, that will take jobs away from our skilled staff". Yeah, and then six months down the line the Thatcher government does just that...

Anyway, getting back to the beacon, it was a very simple radio transmitter, a button to turn it on, and a simple accelerometer similar to those used in car alarms, to detect falls. A tilt switch would trigger when the person wearing the beacon leaned over. OK, admittedly the accelerometer detected the bounce rather than the fall. The whole thing was about 3"x1"x1.5", and the antenna was built into the lanyard you wore it on. He had plans for integrating a heart monitor to it, too.

These Would Be Nice for Home Base Care As Well

[mrs clear plastic]

My father is in the first stages of
alzeimers.

So far, he can still remember where he
is and how to get back home. He goes
about his daily walks with no problem.

However, I can see the day when his alzeimers
advances to the point where he may not be
able to find his way back home.

Would it be nice to have some sort of tracking
on him so that mom (who is caring for him) can
find him, or better yet, a device that is plugged
into his ear that tell him how to get back home
based on gps and street map information; like;
'Walk left at the next intersection'; and
so forth.

We as a family will be needing something like
this.