How to Take Care of Elderly Family Members Remotely

We often have to relocate or leave our homes for a longer duration for our work. However, moving away from our homes sometimes means moving away from the family. While the younger members of the family don't have to worry about anything in this scenario, the elderly members need special care in our absence. One of the best ways to take care of the elderly while staying away from home is through a remote monitoring system.

Remote monitoring system offers the following advantages:

• Ability to keep track of your family 24*7
• Video conferencing feature
• Hiring a professional caregiver and making sure they are doing their job properly
• Ensuring that the elderly family members lead a comfortable life

What are the Benefits of Remote Monitoring?

Remote monitoring is the best option when it comes to taking care of your family members while staying away from home. If you have to work outside of your town, city, or country, you can't leave the elderly family members in the hands of a hired caregiver. You must have a way to know and always be connected with your family no matter where you are. This is where monitoring systems come in handy.

Some of the benefits of remote monitoring include:

Peace of mind

Living away from your parents or other elderly members of your family can be a challenging task, especially if they are too old to take proper care of themselves. You always find yourself worrying about them, and it hinders your performance at work. With a remote monitoring system, you can bid farewell to all these worries and stay connected to your family throughout the day. Staying connected to your family will indeed render you peace of mind and help you tend to your task properly.

Ability to fulfill your duties

As mentioned in the previous point, when a worry constantly bugs you, you tend to lose your interest in your work. With a remote monitoring system, you will have all your worries taken care of and therefore, will be able to manage your work as you are supposed to do.

Supervising health

Old age often comes with various health issues, and most of them require serious medical care. That means the elderly people have a routine to follow where they take their meds, exercise, and participate in healthy habits. Remote monitoring systems allow you to keep track of their routines and consistently maintain their routine.

Keeping family members safe

Keeping track of your family also ensures their safety from miscreants and anti-social elements. Apart from hiring a professional caregiver, caregiver monitoring systems help you take care of your family and protect them from potential harm as if you are there with them.

Types of Caregivers

While monitoring helps you stay close to your family, you often have to hire a caregiver to help your family members with their day-to-day tasks. Here are a few types of caregivers that you might be interested in:

Informal caregivers

If your parents don't require 24*7 assistance, then informal caregivers are your best option. In that scenario, you can create a network of your friends and relatives to help your parents or other elderly family members in your house with daily chores.

Professional caregivers

If the elderly family member requires special care and attention, then you should opt for professional caregivers. You can hire professional caregivers from a renowned service provider. You can set the timing and frequency of visits along with the tasks that they would be required to do. The cost of hiring a professional caregiver will vary according to your needs.

Adult daycare

Adult daycare facilities are similar to child daycares. You can put your elderly family members in the facility, and the staff there will take care of them throughout the day. Since adult daycare facilities are specially for elderly members, they have various services that cater to the elderly's needs. At adult day care, your family members will be kept track of as well as provided with various therapies to help them relax.

Community care

Many communities have volunteer groups dedicated to helping out the elderly. They offer services like cooking meals, buying groceries, and helping out with daily chores. If the elderly members of your family are not totally dependent on extra help to get through the day, community services might be a great option for you.

Remote care through tech

Finally, you can rely on a network of devices to monitor your parents. With a remote monitoring system, you can keep track of their daily activities as well as make sure they are following their routine, including taking meds at the time and exercising.

How Can Technology Help to Keep Track of Elderly Members Remotely?

Technology has evolved a lot in the last few years. Many aspects of technology have specifically been developed to help people with their daily lives. With the proper use of devices, gadgets, and other technical objects, long-distance caregiving is easy. It will not only help you watch over your parents but also allow you to interact with them. Some of the ways technology can help you take care of the elderly family members are as follow:

GPS services

With the evolution of GPS services, now you can get to know someone's location as close to 1 meter of their position. Elders who are suffering from Alzheimer's or Dementia could make good use of GPS services.

Cameras

Planting cameras at your house will not only allow you to keep track of your parents, but you also give you a way to interact with your family from wherever you are. You can also set your cameras to send feeds directly to your smartphone or laptop.

Phone apps

There are multiple mobile applications that are specifically designed to handle caregiving situations. They come with features that will cater to your needs of keeping track of your parents.

Virtual Assistants

Virtual assistants such as Google, Alexa, and Siri have evolved to act as a helping hand and therefore, can come in handy for elderly members. They can monitor stats such as heartbeat, blood pressure, and glucose level.

Can Remote Monitoring Replace Human Help?

The short answer to this is no. While a remote monitoring system helps you in almost every way to make sure your family members live comfortably and lead a healthy life, it lacks one of the most important factors for well-being, i.e., human contact. You can keep track of your family from miles away and even interact with them when you want, but sometimes an elderly requires a human being to be around them.

That is not to say that technology is not a good option. On the contrary, it is the best option for those who have to stay away from their homes for longer durations and have to leave their house under the guidance of a hired caregiver. Nevertheless, technology can not replace human touch; therefore, you must visit your home or your elderly parents every chance you get.