Monitoring Technology for the Elderly is a Touchy Subject

As baby boomers enter their golden years, many of their generation X children are concerned about their well-being. Over the years, many people have become wary of nursing homes for the elderly, and even well-marketed retirement communities tend to rub independent seniors the wrong way. Many people over the age of 70 years old strongly prefer to live in their own homes and take care of themselves. Independence is an enormously important aspect of feeling like you have control over your own life, so it comes as no surprise that the vast majority of people would prefer to live without assistance from professional care providers.

For those seniors who do not have the nearby support of their children or other family members, there are few options that create peace of mind for everyone. Using sensors, special gadgets and the Internet, adult children can now closely monitor the daily in-home activities of their parents or elderly relatives whom they feel would benefit from having someone look after them - if only virtually.

The idea is simple. Sensors, special pill boxes and other gadgets are installed in the home of an elderly person and updates are sent via e-mail, text or phone message as to the activities occurring in the home. In this manner, children of elderly parents can help to ensure that medicines are taken as required and that nothing concerning is happening in the course of daily routines. There are all levels of monitoring technology available, from simple medicine notifications to full-on Big Brother-style video monitoring. Most people who have successfully incorporated the monitoring technology, however, are using a combination of sensors and notification devices that are non-intrusive and that only provide pertinent information as scheduled.

Obviously, this is a highly personal decision for all parties involved and it's usually the case that the elderly parents being monitored have some initial reservations about the process. After all, there's something a little creepy about your movements and activities being monitored and transmitted from your own home to your kids or other third parties who are essentially making sure everything's alright. But along with a little bit of that creepiness comes the reassurance that someone is virtually keeping an eye on you at all times. If someone were to fall, for example, and miss taking their medicines during the scheduled window, it would generate a notification and someone would be aware of a problem far sooner than if the sensors were not in place.

From the standpoint of the children who use this monitoring technology to keep tabs on their parents, much of the market is surely driven by guilt about not being able to care for them directly. But in today's society, it's extremely difficult for most working professionals to somehow incorporate taking care of their aging parents, in addition to their own families on a daily basis. The monitoring technology helps to assuage that guilt and to provide some comfort in knowing that they are doing "something" to provide care for their parents.

Easing into monitoring technology for elderly parents seems to be one of the keys to success. Start out slowly with only a few pieces of information to be monitored, then build up as everyone becomes more comfortable with the processes involved. For many, the virtual connection serves as a welcome security blanket and minor deviations from routines often generate phone calls and contact that otherwise would not have occurred. In this way, the coldness of the monitoring technology actually delivers the warmth of direct conversation and a more sustained connection.