Technology to Help Older Adults Age in Place

The baby boom generation has begun to retire, and, unlike prior generations, this generation is very active and independent. I know; I just hit the big 65 myself. But, many in my age group have lifestyle ailments and will eventually succumb to health issues like our parents did.

Our group is very likely to try to remain in the homes we have lived in for several more years, versus going to live with our children or going into an assisted living facility. And we are the first retiring generation who has been exposed heavily to the digital world…I know no one my age who does not Skype or Face Time with their grandkids! Which means we will gravitate to technology to assist us as we age in place, and we will not only accept technology, but embrace it to monitor us to ensure our safety and mobility.

As we age, we will have the same issues our parents and their parents had. We will become more unsteady in our gait, we will become incontinent, we will fall, we will develop dementia and we will wonder… perhaps outside where we should not be.

Just like prior generations, our children will want us to be safe and watched over, but our children are going to accept telemedicine based “guardian angels” who will hover around us with sensors.

Telehealth Sensors, founded in 2008, is in the business of creating these guardian angels. Their guardian angels consist of a whole family of passive sensors for the bed, chair, toilets, floor mats, emergency call buttons… the list goes on and on.  Telehealth Sensors is a vertically integrated company that designs, engineers, and manufactures them at their headquarters in North Aurora Illinois. Their technology is unique and patented. They are a B-to-B company whose North America, EU and Asia customers range from bed manufacturers to companies who have telemedicine monitoring platforms.

Their monitors can track the movement of a person in a home, assisted living facility or even in a nursing home. Think of this… if someone is not walking around in their house, and in the process, NOT stepping on strategically placed sensor mats, the platform can alert family or other caregivers to make a call or visit. If a bed-ridden person gets out of bed in a nursing home, the bed sensor will alert people to look in on him or her. If a person with mild dementia leaves a house, the sensor can notify a caregiver. If a person is even mildly incontinent in bed or in a chair, the incontinence sensor can awake the person or notify a caregiver.

Their toilet sensor is used to monitor the number of visits to the toilet and indicate duration of each visit. This data, collected over a period of time is valuable in diagnosing a UTI, prostate issue or other urinary concerns.

The emergency call button, which has a transmitter, is placed in strategic places within a home where one is prone to falls. A light tap to the big red button will alert a caregiver that the resident needs immediate help.

Keeping seniors safe in their environment of choice improves quality of life, improves longevity and gives them independence to conduct their lives as they please… under the watchful presence of a whole host of monitors!

The average cost of a senior who is in an assisted living facility is $3,500 a month. The average monitoring cost of a senior aging at home is less than $100 a month…thus saving an enormous amount of money.

Telehealth Sensors is another company that is helping us move rapidly into a digital world.