Medical Alert Advancements
Watching your parents growing older is never an easy time. There are so many decisions to make and many of them can start family fights. It is always better to plan ahead. No one wants to think about these things but if you plan ahead some of the stress can be avoided.Many families try to avoid these topics because they are uncomfortable. If you wait until something bad happens then emotions cloud people's judgment. Families need to sit down and discuss what will happen in different situations while the older adults have time to really think clearly and make good decisions.
When you wait too long you risk having to make decisions without your parents input. This can lead to huge falling out in families when everyone disagrees on what the parent would want. These times can be stressful enough and families need to be together.
I am always amazed be the advances in technology and this is another area that technology is helping people. Many older adults do not want to lose their independence and refuse to move out of the homes that they love. Advancements in the Medical Alert field have helped older adults stay in their homes with less worry.
When my grandmother starting having problems she felt that a cordless phone would be enough. She often forgot to charge it so there were times that she would fall and could not call anyone. Medical Alert advancements have made things like a FALL ALERT detector and a GPS Tracking Bracelet with 2-way speakerphone possible. I have seen many reports of patients with Alzheimers wandering off in the middle of winter and a GPS bracelet could be a matter of life or death.
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Seeing your parents deteriorate is very sad and stressful. The medical alert gadgets are very helpful! The book i wrote about my dad is about his fight for independence and how it affected our relationship. I am glad to say he won and I surrendered!
Once we got a medical home alert system, it gave everyone a sigh of relief. It just gives you comfort knowing there is a way to get help.
That's a good post with decision ideas that people really need to think about.
On our site, tell people that as caregivers, they will burn-out easily if they don't split the care-giving jobs between other family members. But when they do, it is best to take an inventory of personal strengths and weaknesses. This will make the "chores" easier, and take less of their personal time, which will be at a premium.
Medical alert systems can certainly help, but should only be used as an added tool and not a replacement for proper supervision, if it's required.