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Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

venturebeat.com

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Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#31

Post by ilamont »

The AARP said in “2019 Tech Trends and the 50+” that 115 million Americans over 50 represent an enormous market for technology and that by the end of the next decade this group is projected to spend $84 billion on tech products.

Yet major technology companies continue to make it difficult for seniors to do simple things, even though they think they're making things easier. The tech hipsters handling design for FAANG companies should follow around a group of 70-somethings for a week and try to see the world through their eyes ... and realize that a huge segment of the population is not being served.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#32

Post by rconti »

bluGill wrote: post #14
ido wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder at what age that typically (if there is a typical experience) happens? My mother is in her mid 70s and very far from a techie or tech-interested (worked in textiles/fashion, never used a computer before the current century & then first only for making free international calls via Skype as was setup by us) & slowly but surely adapted to some small variety of new tech especially after retirement when she had m…

While it is true old people slow down, I think interest in learning is the bigger factor. I know old people who enjoy new toys and get them all the time, even though they struggle [with something younger people find easy) they enjoy the learning and figure it out. I know old people who have no interest in learning anything new in general - yet when presented with something new related to their hobbies can figure it o…

I agree with the comment about interest. Hell, my dad just turned 80 and he has far more interest in playing with Android on his phone, tweaking things on his Tesla, and so on. But he never worked in tech, although of course he used computers as part of his office job.

As someone who works in tech, I just want my personal tech to work, and I have much more limited free time. But he could have all the free time in the world; if he wasn't interested in learning new things, he'd have far less tech than I do.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#33

Post by rconti »

wffurr wrote: post #21
wffurr wrote: post #10

>> My mother’s housing costs are moving past $6,300 a month Holy shit. I can't imagine how the author can afford that plus take care of his family.

"Lead journalist" at VentureBeat must be more lucrative than I thought. Is this housing cost a Silicon Valley thing? Like rents are completely insane, so elder housing is also completely insane? It's not like I live in a cheap city, either. Boston is pretty pricey, but wow.

Assisted living, in general, is phenomenally expensive. It sounds like the mother lived in Sacramento, but they're renting out her house, so I'm sure that's a welcome revenue stream.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#34

Post by inferiorhuman »

phamjamstudio wrote: post #17
onemoresoop wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are services in NYC where you can volunteer to simply talk to lonely elderly (or play card games or some other activity) in your neighborhood. I can't provide a link right unfortunately. You have to sign up, they'll verify you and then they'll connect to some lonely elderly in your area. Loneliness and isolation is understated.

My wife and I did this as our first date when we first started dating; we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date. Unexpectedly, the lady we were to visit literally lived her last hour before she passed away before our eyes. We listened and comforted her husband for the next hour or so. We also listened to the CNA make the difficult calls to her children, some of which were out…

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date

What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#35

Post by inferiorhuman »

wffurr wrote: post #21
wffurr wrote: post #10

>> My mother’s housing costs are moving past $6,300 a month Holy shit. I can't imagine how the author can afford that plus take care of his family.

"Lead journalist" at VentureBeat must be more lucrative than I thought. Is this housing cost a Silicon Valley thing? Like rents are completely insane, so elder housing is also completely insane? It's not like I live in a cheap city, either. Boston is pretty pricey, but wow.

I suspect it's a labor thing as much as anything else. My father lived out his life at home, so I didn't have to deal with assisted living. However, the IRS is crystal clear that domestic employees are in fact employees subject to all the things like overtime and UI. California has even more generous overtime rules, but even just the base pay gets expensive. $20 * 24 * 7 = $3,360 in base pay per week. Using an agency simplifies things but is usually a bit more expensive.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#36

Post by mjevans »

egl2019 wrote: post #25
wffurr wrote: post #10

>> My mother’s housing costs are moving past $6,300 a month Holy shit. I can't imagine how the author can afford that plus take care of his family.

From personal experience, I can tell you that $6K/month is not exclusively a Silicon-Valley phenomenon. Basically you cover it with whatever SS, pension, savings, and other assets they have. When those don't cover it, you make compromises in quality of care, your finances, and your family's life.

This is actually one of the biggest reasons that socialized medicine is going to be a requirement rather than a nice to have.

Literally the cost of labor is just too high for this to not be part of a social safety net.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#37

Post by wwweston »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #34
phamjamstudio wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I did this as our first date when we first started dating; we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date. Unexpectedly, the lady we were to visit literally lived her last hour before she passed away before our eyes. We listened and comforted her husband for the next hour or so. We also listened to the CNA make the difficult calls to her children, some of which were out…

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

It's certainly worth knowing that Christianity, like most religious beliefs or philosophies, does not have a monopoly on empathy, kindness, or service, nor is its profession a guarantee that someone makes those things a studied part of their practice.

But the commentor's claims seem limited to Christianity as a motivator for their behavior, which is hardly objectionable and a very different thing from your challenge-reading of their words.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#38

Post by pimlottc »

docker_up wrote: post #5
pnutjam wrote: post #3

My Mother-in-law could never figure out how to use a touchscreen phone. Getting her own phone line was very difficult and finding a good flip style phone is getting harder and harder. I found that many newer models of cordless home phones will bluetooth tether to a cellphone. This way we could keep her phone plugged in and charged and she could just use the cordless style phone she was already accustomed to.

I use an iPad with my mother who has severe dementia. I screwed the iPad down to the table and set FaceTime to automatically answer. This helps a bit so that I can call out to her. I also have a Nest cam in her room so I can see her that way as well. It's a terrible existence that my mother is living.

> [I] set FaceTime to automatically answer.

Huh, I didn’t realize this was an option, that’s very useful for situations like this. Thanks for the tip!

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#39

Post by cybersnowflake »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #34
phamjamstudio wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I did this as our first date when we first started dating; we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date. Unexpectedly, the lady we were to visit literally lived her last hour before she passed away before our eyes. We listened and comforted her husband for the next hour or so. We also listened to the CNA make the difficult calls to her children, some of which were out…

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

Well, according to some statistics yes...

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/30/religious-p...

but saying christians visit the elderly for a first date does not necessarily imply nobody but christians are generous in any way.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#40

Post by inferiorhuman »

wwweston wrote: post #37
inferiorhuman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

It's certainly worth knowing that Christianity, like most religious beliefs or philosophies, does not have a monopoly on empathy, kindness, or service, nor is its profession a guarantee that someone makes those things a studied part of their practice. But the commentor's claims seem limited to Christianity as a motivator for their behavior, which is hardly objectionable and a very different thing from your challenge-…

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