Green Bank, West Virginia, is arguably the most isolated place in the nation. A large telescope designed to monitor for signals from the universe requires a 13,000 square mile “quiet zone”, encompassing much of West Virginia and even stretching as far north as the Maryland border. In this “quiet zone”, residents live with no cellular telephone service, no Internet, no radio, and until recently, no microwaves. For the most part, the residents of this community are completely isolated. They have very limited means of communicating with the outside world. Today, seniors living outside of Green Bank, West Virginia are also feeling cut off and lonely. But why?
One could argue that our current population is the most connected it has ever been. People walking around with cell phones, tablets, connected wearables, bluetooth head pieces, and smartwatches are more connected than ever. The difficulty is that technologies that support better communication are often complicated, daunting and rarely designed for the 65+ population in mind.
It could be a difficult leap for someone who has witnessed the rise and fall of the typewriter, for example, to be expected to set up and operate a laptop computer or figure out how to place a video call. “Technophobia” may be running rampant in senior housing, leaving loved ones with limited means for contact. It does not seem right that in this “connected world” we live in that one whole gaping generation is left in the cold, alone and lonely.
Enter GrandCare Systems, a company created in 2005 to combat senior isolation and help keep families connected and provide “peace of mind”. The GrandCare System was designed to be self maintaining and require ZERO technical know-how from the loved one. It simply works and seamlessly connects them to one touch video chat with family, friends and even healthcare providers. Pictures automatically populate the large GrandCare touchscreen from various family facebook photo albums. Family can login to the care portal from any mobile device or computer and send messages, reminders, schedule appointments, add to dos and check in to see if mom needs anything.
Is your loved one lonely or isolated? That’s not right. Let GrandCare help. Contact us.
You’ve been sick for days. Your head hurts, your throat hurts–everything hurts. You’ve already tried cold meds, herbal tea, and home remedies. You’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, so now you have to make a choice: do you see a doctor or not? Used to be, those were the two options people had. However, as technology has improved, so have our options for seeking medical treatment. Would you trust a smartphone app, video call, or texting service to give you a proper diagnosis and provide you the relief you need?
More and more people are saying yes to mHealth or mobile health.
Whether you’re using a grandCARE system to monitor your vitals, remind you to take your medications, or video chat with a doctor halfway around the world, technology is undoubtedly changing the the way we take care of ourselves.
In-home health care systems like grandCARE are a great way to introduce technology into the lives of elders. And for the technophobes, grandCARE is a self-maintaining “supersystem.” Everything from Skype and HIPAA compliant video calls to facebook photo integration and daily reminders can be handled without grandma ever having to even touch the grandCARE touchscreen.
So, can a computer monitor really enhance and empower an in-home caregiver? Can a video chat session save windshield time and empower a caregiver to check in on several clients at once? Why is every house not equipped with grandCARE and making life simply better for seniors? Call us today and order a system for your loved one at an all time low price. 262-338-6147 sales@grandcare.com
00info@lmcllc.ushttps://www.grandcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/grandcare-logo-300x138.pnginfo@lmcllc.us2016-01-18 21:59:012016-01-18 21:59:01mHealth v. Face-to-Face Care
The digital health technology industry is ramping up quickly, and everyone understands the critical and immediate need for enabling technologies to turn our man-on-man caregivers into zone caregivers. The technology works. Study after study proves that telemedicine does benefit patients, medication adherence technologies do help mitigate hospital readmissions, and that loneliness and isolation do decrease. The implementation difficulties lie not in the technologies themselves, but instead in the delivery of the model of care, utilizing these new omniscient technologies. So, how do we do it? That’s a whole different question.
The most difficult thing in this “new” aging in place technology industry is determining who uses the technology, who pays for it, and how to encourage resident and caregiver compliance with technology.
At GrandCare, we utilize digital health, activity remote monitoring, touchscreen-based socialization, media sharing, and video chat as a platform to connect caregivers to aging loved ones or clients, while providing the caregivers with proactive, preventative information to enable the safety and independence of the care recipient.
Sounds like a good idea, right?
We thought so…in 2005. That’s when we started this amazing and fantastically frightening journey of trying to convince the industry that there actually was a need. The trick at the time was to persuade the world that technology could actually play a role in helping to care for a loved one. The technology would NOT be a cyborg that dismissed the need for a personal caregiver, but instead could enhance hands-on caregiving. The notion would be that the centerpiece socialization piece would engage the care recipient by providing games, entertainment and information (weather, news, etc.), while connecting them to family through picture/video sharing, letter exchanges, scheduling, and one-touch video chatting.
Meanwhile, a series of optional wireless devices (bluetooth blood pressure devices, glucometers, motion detectors, indoor temperature readers, etc.) would sit passively around the home and report on potential red flags. For example, if a person did not get out of bed in the morning, didn’t access a fridge at mealtime or if the indoor temperature was out of range, someone could be notified.
To those nay-sayers of technologies to promote independence at home, I honestly don’t get it. Perhaps these are the same folks that were completely appalled at the idea of telephones. Would anyone personally visit anyone anymore? Or remember when answering machines came out and it was appalling to think about talking to a machine? I was involved in the very early days of an Internet Service Provider (the first in our county in Wisconsin) and I recall teaching classes called Internet fundamentals where I explained the “Internet” using library analogies, taught the finer arts of how to install Netscape Navigator on a CD. I taught HTML fundamental classes and advised a number of local businesses on how the Internet was going to better their businesses and why they needed websites. I recall many saying the idea was interesting, but their customers would NEVER be directed to a computer and instead would always demand to talk to a live person. Some of these same companies provide today the finest web experience, online stores and help centers with live chat features (yes, this does go to a real person).
The amount of horrified comments about how folks would rather die than have any piece of assistive technology was, well, insane. Forget about the irony in which people posted how much they hate technology on an Internet chat forum, but why the fear? Why the anger?
#grandCAREworks #ItActuallyWorks
Laura is a founding member of GrandCare Systems and remains a strategic growth advisor for the pioneer digital health organization.
https://www.grandcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/GC-esther-inbox.png337520info@lmcllc.ushttps://www.grandcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/grandcare-logo-300x138.pnginfo@lmcllc.us2016-01-12 21:02:322016-01-12 21:02:32Developing a New Model of Care
Preventing Senior Isolation
Green Bank, West Virginia, is arguably the most isolated place in the nation. A large telescope designed to monitor for signals from the universe requires a 13,000 square mile “quiet zone”, encompassing much of West Virginia and even stretching as far north as the Maryland border. In this “quiet zone”, residents live with no cellular telephone service, no Internet, no radio, and until recently, no microwaves. For the most part, the residents of this community are completely isolated. They have very limited means of communicating with the outside world. Today, seniors living outside of Green Bank, West Virginia are also feeling cut off and lonely. But why?
One could argue that our current population is the most connected it has ever been. People walking around with cell phones, tablets, connected wearables, bluetooth head pieces, and smartwatches are more connected than ever. The difficulty is that technologies that support better communication are often complicated, daunting and rarely designed for the 65+ population in mind.
It could be a difficult leap for someone who has witnessed the rise and fall of the typewriter, for example, to be expected to set up and operate a laptop computer or figure out how to place a video call. “Technophobia” may be running rampant in senior housing, leaving loved ones with limited means for contact. It does not seem right that in this “connected world” we live in that one whole gaping generation is left in the cold, alone and lonely.
Enter GrandCare Systems, a company created in 2005 to combat senior isolation and help keep families connected and provide “peace of mind”. The GrandCare System was designed to be self maintaining and require ZERO technical know-how from the loved one. It simply works and seamlessly connects them to one touch video chat with family, friends and even healthcare providers. Pictures automatically populate the large GrandCare touchscreen from various family facebook photo albums. Family can login to the care portal from any mobile device or computer and send messages, reminders, schedule appointments, add to dos and check in to see if mom needs anything.
Is your loved one lonely or isolated? That’s not right. Let GrandCare help. Contact us.
mHealth v. Face-to-Face Care
You’ve been sick for days. Your head hurts, your throat hurts–everything hurts. You’ve already tried cold meds, herbal tea, and home remedies. You’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, so now you have to make a choice: do you see a doctor or not? Used to be, those were the two options people had. However, as technology has improved, so have our options for seeking medical treatment. Would you trust a smartphone app, video call, or texting service to give you a proper diagnosis and provide you the relief you need?
More and more people are saying yes to mHealth or mobile health.
Whether you’re using a grandCARE system to monitor your vitals, remind you to take your medications, or video chat with a doctor halfway around the world, technology is undoubtedly changing the the way we take care of ourselves.
In-home health care systems like grandCARE are a great way to introduce technology into the lives of elders. And for the technophobes, grandCARE is a self-maintaining “supersystem.” Everything from Skype and HIPAA compliant video calls to facebook photo integration and daily reminders can be handled without grandma ever having to even touch the grandCARE touchscreen.
So, can a computer monitor really enhance and empower an in-home caregiver? Can a video chat session save windshield time and empower a caregiver to check in on several clients at once? Why is every house not equipped with grandCARE and making life simply better for seniors? Call us today and order a system for your loved one at an all time low price. 262-338-6147 sales@grandcare.com
Developing a New Model of Care
By: Laura Mitchell
The digital health technology industry is ramping up quickly, and everyone understands the critical and immediate need for enabling technologies to turn our man-on-man caregivers into zone caregivers. The technology works. Study after study proves that telemedicine does benefit patients, medication adherence technologies do help mitigate hospital readmissions, and that loneliness and isolation do decrease. The implementation difficulties lie not in the technologies themselves, but instead in the delivery of the model of care, utilizing these new omniscient technologies. So, how do we do it? That’s a whole different question.
The most difficult thing in this “new” aging in place technology industry is determining who uses the technology, who pays for it, and how to encourage resident and caregiver compliance with technology.
At GrandCare, we utilize digital health, activity remote monitoring, touchscreen-based socialization, media sharing, and video chat as a platform to connect caregivers to aging loved ones or clients, while providing the caregivers with proactive, preventative information to enable the safety and independence of the care recipient.
Sounds like a good idea, right?
We thought so…in 2005. That’s when we started this amazing and fantastically frightening journey of trying to convince the industry that there actually was a need. The trick at the time was to persuade the world that technology could actually play a role in helping to care for a loved one. The technology would NOT be a cyborg that dismissed the need for a personal caregiver, but instead could enhance hands-on caregiving. The notion would be that the centerpiece socialization piece would engage the care recipient by providing games, entertainment and information (weather, news, etc.), while connecting them to family through picture/video sharing, letter exchanges, scheduling, and one-touch video chatting.
Meanwhile, a series of optional wireless devices (bluetooth blood pressure devices, glucometers, motion detectors, indoor temperature readers, etc.) would sit passively around the home and report on potential red flags. For example, if a person did not get out of bed in the morning, didn’t access a fridge at mealtime or if the indoor temperature was out of range, someone could be notified.
To those nay-sayers of technologies to promote independence at home, I honestly don’t get it. Perhaps these are the same folks that were completely appalled at the idea of telephones. Would anyone personally visit anyone anymore? Or remember when answering machines came out and it was appalling to think about talking to a machine? I was involved in the very early days of an Internet Service Provider (the first in our county in Wisconsin) and I recall teaching classes called Internet fundamentals where I explained the “Internet” using library analogies, taught the finer arts of how to install Netscape Navigator on a CD. I taught HTML fundamental classes and advised a number of local businesses on how the Internet was going to better their businesses and why they needed websites. I recall many saying the idea was interesting, but their customers would NEVER be directed to a computer and instead would always demand to talk to a live person. Some of these same companies provide today the finest web experience, online stores and help centers with live chat features (yes, this does go to a real person).
The amount of horrified comments about how folks would rather die than have any piece of assistive technology was, well, insane. Forget about the irony in which people posted how much they hate technology on an Internet chat forum, but why the fear? Why the anger?
#grandCAREworks #ItActuallyWorks