And You Thought Technology Was for the Young?

After hearing these stories, I knew they needed to be shared. (Fictitious names are provided)  Perhaps you may find one or both ideas to be of value.

STORY #1
My good friend, Mary, recently told me a fantastic story about her Mother. Ethel is 92, and was given a ‘Fit Bit’ device by one of her other daughters. At first, she wasn’t quite sure why she needed to have something like that, but once her daughter set it up for her, (mainly to monitor her steps) it has become a part of her everyday routine.

In fact, when she notices that she hasn’t reached her particular level of daily steps, she starts walking around inside the house, or asks her daughter to walk with her outside. She wears it everywhere.

She loves the “bells and whistles” because they either remind her she is short of steps, OR that she has reached her daily goal (BIG encouragement). Ethel is constantly looking at her monitoring device to see what her status is for the day. It motivates her.

Moral of the story: If your aging parent needs to get more exercise, this may be a motivator to do just that. And, there are many device brands (and price ranges) to choose from.

STORY #2
Most of you have likely heard about the device known as The Echo, a device that uses speech recognition to perform tasks on command; and for this device, Alexa is the “voice” who answers. One of those tasks came in very handy for some friends of mine (Keith and Diane) who have this particular device.

One day, Diane, who is also medically fragile, had a fall. Keith was obviously emotionally upset, but knew exactly what to do. He said the name “Alexa” and then said to call Security. Since they live in a Lifecare Senior Community, the Security Office answered the phone call and Keith was able to direct them to their apartment. If they had not lived in a senior community, ‘Alexa’ could have been asked to call 9-1-1.  

Moral of the Story: There are many other uses for these types of devices, but this emergency situation becomes a BIG reason to consider having one of them set up in a senior’s home – whether they are healthy or not. Check out the Business Insider Reviews of many of these types of devices.

“And you Thought Technology was for the Young?”   You might consider technology as a gift to seniors you know.

“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.” 
Benjamin Franklin