Daily Call Offers Reassurance
A few years ago, the president of Senior Concerns Andrea Gallagher had an article in the Thousand Oaks Acorn about telephone reassurance1. She wrote about using PERS (e.g. Life Alert) for safety and how daily calls can offer home-alone seniors a different experience. The use of one’s telephone as a personal monitoring device is not new. It’s popular among young adults today to use their cell phones to track their whereabouts, active steps and biometrics, based on the goals they set for themselves. Elderly people are concerned with their health and well-being too. Using their telephone to check-in makes sense for them, and getting help is just a call away. That’s what telephone reassurance is about.
Some senior centers brought in volunteers to make reassurance calls to their seniors. They feel it has the personal touch that a homebound senior would appreciate. In San Diego County, Project Care2 has an automated system for reassurance calls. It’s a choice they offer to their local community centers, among other options, to make their clients feel safe.
CareRinger for Telephone Reassurance
CareRinger aims to provide support to seniors with check-in calls, monitoring their well-being and providing relief for their caregiver friends and family members. If they do not answer the call, these designated contacts will know their loved ones might need their help.
An automated system like CareRinger has the advantage of operating reliably 24/7. One can easily tell the scheduled calls apart from other unwelcome calls at other times. Some seniors may feel uncomfortable talking to a live person not familiar to them. CareRinger offers them another way of acknowledging their well-being that suits them.
Why CareRinger is Senior Friendly
Even responding to a simple check-up call could be a challenge to some, but it doesn’t have to be. With CareRinger, the seniors simply pick up the phone to let their loved ones know that they are well. Otherwise, a notification call, SMS (text) and/or email message will be sent to their designated contacts to alert them. With the Amazon Echo3, one can even use voice commands to talk to CareRinger!
CareRinger can ring two or more times so Grandma does not have to be in a hurry to answer the call or risk missing it. A feature unique to CareRinger even allows Grandma to check-in early, so she does not have to wait by the phone for the call from CareRinger to happen.
Grandma can also use CareRinger as a reminder for her medication or other daily routines she might forget. She knows she will not need the call from CareRinger or from her loved ones to remind her when she is fine. She just has to check-in early!
1 https://www.seniorconcerns.org/daily-calls-can-offer-reassurance/
2 https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/ais/project_care.html
3 Amazon Echo is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates
About the author: Henry is a former telecommunication professional, now attending to the needs of elderly people. He has been teaching seniors about senior-friendly technologies in his local communities. He is an inventor and Founder of CareRinger, and holds patents on methods that apply to his service.
