The future of shopping, transportation, and music are all readily available in the palm of your hand or via a device such as Alexa or the Amazon Echo Dot, and transportation is readily available with apps like Uber or Lyft, so why wouldn’t elder care have similar technology available? The future of elder care is changing. Home health care options, such as Senior Helpers Charleston, is growing with the times, making assisted living facilities less appealing.
Staying in one’s own home is always going to be preferred over going to an assisted living facility. Not only is it more comfortable but it is also helpful for patients suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer’s to be in a place easily recognized. Moving these patients to an assisted living facility can be detrimental to their mental state.
Now imagine a technology being developed for home health care. This technology can sense when a person’s health needs adhering to or could even call for emergency service personnel should the need arise. The technology would be able to set reminders to take medication, and potentially even be able to tell if the medication was forgotten.
A smart house or system such as this couldn’t ever negate the need for human companionship, however. Being alone all the time in a house - even a house that may be able to converse with you - is also going to be detrimental to the mental state of elderly patients. In the Rat Park experiment by Bruce Alexander, two sets of rats were given drug cocktails in their water. The first group was a social group in which many rats lived together and had access to toys, and food, and companionship, while the second group were secluded from each other. The first group refused the drug cocktail while participants in the second group partook and became addicted. While this was a study on drug addiction, similar studies have been done on seclusion and depression.
In addition to a smart house, elderly patients can take advantage of meal delivery services that cater to their specific health needs like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Sun Basket, and Home Chef. If cooking isn’t an option, there are other services that deliver fully cooked meals such as Meals on Wheels or Magic Kitchen.
Transportation can also be available using apps like Uber which can easily transport patients to see loved ones, to get food, or to get to necessary, non-emergency doctor appointments.
The landscape of elder care is changing, and Senior Helpers Charleston is a part of that change.