Providing Adequate Senior Care: 5 Pieces of Technology to Assist Caregivers

From getting groceries delivered to your home to finding symptoms of a certain illness, technology is an important part of your life. When you decide to start providing caregiver duties for a loved one, technology can turn into your best friend. Here are five technology tools that you and your loved one may be able to benefit from.

Smartphone Applications

When you're new to taking care of someone else in addition to yourself, it can be easy to forget things. However, your elderly loved one needs to receive their medication on time and make it to their doctor appointments. There is a wide assortment of smartphone apps available that can help you keep track of medication, doctor appointments, etc. You can even find some apps that will let you keep track of current prescriptions, physicians, etc.

Personal Emergency Response Systems

Also known as Personal Alarm Services, these electronic devices are usually a necklace or bracelet that your elderly loved one will wear. There is a button that can be pressed in the event of an emergency. This can come in handy if you need to run to the store and leave your loved one at home alone. Not only will it give them the peace of mind knowing that they can get help with the push of a button if needed, but it will also give you the peace of mind knowing that your loved one can request help no matter where they are if something happens.

Automatic Pill Dispensers

Aging individuals tend to take a large number of pills each day. These pills need to be taken at different times during the day, which can be hard to keep track of. Luckily, an automatic pill dispenser makes taking medication at the right time extremely easy. It will dispense medicine at the times of day that you set and sound off an alarm. This helps avoid any issues that many elderly individuals have with taking medications at the wrong time, taking the wrong medication or forgetting to take the medicine.

Home Monitoring Systems

To keep track of your loved one while you're not there, a home monitoring system can be installed. This would likely include both sensors and cameras that can be wirelessly accessed from your mobile device. Sensors alert you that something may be wrong and the cameras provide you with eyes in the home even when you're not there.

Online Support Groups

Sometimes taking care of a loved one can become a bit overwhelming and it can be nice to have someone else to talk to about it that is in the same boat. Online support groups are available for caregivers to receive help or to allow you to vent when you're frustrated. This will likely keep your stress levels lower and possibly even improve your performance as a caregiver.

When you're taking care of a loved one, you need to utilize all the tools that you can to make the experience easier for you and beneficial for your loved one. When things become too much for either of you, it may be time to have a professional senior caregiver come into the home or to consider an assisted living or nursing home facility like Connecting Hearts Home Care.