AARP, the nation’s largest lobbyist group and the outspoken advocate of senior rights and care initiatives, recently announced that they will be helping support tests for voice based health solutions for seniors living within their own homes. These devices are designed to use voice recognition technology to help provide virtual companionship and help monitor things like medications and basic health measurements. They’re still a ways off from being in every household, but some great advances in this area currently exist.
You may have read about how technology is finally at a point where some portions of senior care can be automated. That’s only partially true–technology can never replace human contact. However, technology can do a lot to help seniors live safer lives. Sensors can detect if someone has fallen, if they are not getting out of bed at a reasonable time, or if the house has something wrong with it. Things like what I mentioned above can also help the elderly to keep up with healthy habits and lifestyles. All of these are definitely positive, but human contact cannot be simply ignored once these things are in place. In fact, these are just tools to add temporary precautionary measures into someone’s life so that they can go longer without needing more intensive care.
Having an in-home caregiver to come in and check on a loved one once in a while is a strong addition to these tech safety items. This way, human contact is created, and studies have shown that this can have a huge positive impact on health, both physical and mental. Just knowing that someone cares about you is often a good reason to get out of bed in the morning and start your day. Having someone visiting you later in the day gives you something to look forward to. And having a conversation or just sitting in a comfortable silence with someone that you trust can be reassuring. No computer can ever replicate this.
That’s where we step in. At Paradise In-Home Care, we don’t just provide caregivers to come and help out in people’s homes. We create companionship and compassion. We train people to help, but we have seen so many strong bonds of trust and love grow out of those relationships. This is a perk of in-home care that often goes unthought of before care begins, but several months into care, it no longer seems like a professional is coming in to help out, but rather that a friend is coming over to visit. This makes a world of difference in the lives of seniors.
We always make sure that we thoroughly train our caregivers, and part of this training is to encourage them to go that extra mile and create these bonds. This is a difficult time in many people’s lives, and having someone that you trust can help to overcome this.
Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions about care. We can set up a no-obligation consultation and help you figure out what’s best for your family.
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