Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#2Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker.
As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or if we're investing our time/money/energy in the right places. After all, everyone is going to die so I'm wondering what we can do to alleviate some of the pressure + pain from this part of life.
In this vein, if you know of opportunities to help the elderly in NYC, please let me know. I'm open and willing to spend my evenings and full weekends helping out however I can. Have reached out to a few senior centers, but most have not responded, unfortunately...
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#3My 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.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#4My 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 spent a good ten minutes recently trying to use a phone to make a phone call. In the end, I went onto google play and searched for "dialer" and installed one and when it finished installing, the button marked "install" turns to "run" (or some such - open maybe) and got the newly installed dialer program to start, and then I could make a phone call.
I'm sure there was at least one dialer program installed already. No idea how to find it. There is a lot to be said for a simple phone that puts making phone calls front and centre, with permanent buttons with numbers on them.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#5My 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.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#6My 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 actually got my 80yr old mother a Google Home mini for $25 off ebay. She can easily ask it to play her favorite music, weather info, call the local pharmacy and more. She loves it.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#7My 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've found that change in general is the problem. My grandma was able to use her old tube radio no problem but when it broke she never used the newer stereo, even though she only had to push one button.
30 years later same issue with my mom, she can navigate very complex tasks no problem but has trouble with anything new, even if it's much "easier" to use.
The trick would be to have new tech perfectly emulate whatever the old generation grew up with.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#8Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…
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.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#9My 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've found that change in general is the problem. My grandma was able to use her old tube radio no problem but when it broke she never used the newer stereo, even though she only had to push one button. 30 years later same issue with my mom, she can navigate very complex tasks no problem but has trouble with anything new, even if it's much "easier" to use. The trick would be to have new tech perfectly emulate whateve…
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 more time on her hand.
She does nothing fancy with it but is e.g. using a modern android phone to make video calls & send messages via whatsapp, play casual games, etc.
Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story
#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.