This was the question I was asking when my own mother was first diagnosed with dementia. As a family we all agreed that, as per my mother’s wishes, we would keep her at home as long as we could. This lead to the question which Dementia devices could we deploy for an 80 year old woman to help keep her feeling safe, comfortable and supported?
This was at a time when there were no good online resources such as Age Space. To help one understand what technology was available to support people with Dementia. However we did lots of Google searches and took the advice of the professionals. Specifically the NHS Operational Therapists that assessed my mother’s home when she returned home after a stay in hospital.
Keeping Safe with Dementia Devices
The obvious piece of technology to improve her safety was to install a personal alarm. We chose a service from Careline, which included an alarm pendant she could wear and a wrist strap version.
Comfortable Home for those with Dementia
To improve her comfort we installed a Tado – smart thermostat so that we could remotely control the heating schedule and temperature in the house using a smart phone app
Video Calling for those with Dementia
Skyping with the Elderly
Once our mother’s safety and comfort had been addressed we could then look at reducing her isolation. CallGenie was born out of my requirement to be able to have more visual interaction with my mother. In spite of her diminishing ability to interact with any sort of technology, e.g. tablets or smart phones. I lived an hour’s drive away from my mother’s house, so I wasn’t able to visit her as much as I would have liked.
CallGenie is a complete, fully automated solution for receiving video calls on an elderly, or housebound, person’s television. When a call is received, CallGenie switches the input of their television to itself. At the end of the call, CallGenie returns the television to the state it was in before the call. You can find more information about CallGenie on the Smart Life Solutions website.