How do you check their health is okay, or if there are any emergencies? Especially if they have any medical conditions?
Do you wish something better existed?
Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#2Lifeline is the most common solution I've seen. People also install wifi cameras in their parents' bedroom/living room to check up on them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#3Smart thermostat in their home, polling the API for "Away" status. As they have to walk past the thermostat to get from the bedroom to the living area and kitchen, the thermostat should never switch to Away mode based on the timeout set. As someone else mentioned, Philip's Lifeline for a smooth push button emergency UX (also supports fall detection). Calls to check in and say hello (I set Siri reminders, ymmv).
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#4Not necessarily a technology solution—more common sense than anything-but I have learned that the more complicating factors there are, the more likely it is that there will be a serious health challenge, ie. the risk of serious health issue increases. There could be a “risk” score based on a comprehensive set of factors, measured in a variety of ways (eg. sensors, surveys, etc.) to help avoid a medical emergency.
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#5My siblings and I make an effort to call every day.
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#6> How do you check their health is okay
Depends how ill they are and other factors.
If they're old but healthy, it can make sense to monitor them.
Also if they have dementia but can potentially walk out of the house.
If they're old but terminally ill, it doesn't always make sense to call for an ambulance, since a hospital can't help them in a meaningful way. Calling once a week might be reasonable if they have untreatable cancer, etc. (I went through this with a very old parent who had terminal blood cancer (ie. that's literally what "died of old-age" means.)
So I think it's good to work through the various scenarios for various solutions.
As a "utility service" the LifeAlert product sounds generally very useful.
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#7All the health monitoring should hook up to PagerDuty and then my siblings and I could take shifts. (Only half joking)
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#8I worked on a smart home project once that supported recently disabled people towards recovery.
I know they setup a bed sensor that would report when they got out of bed each day. A simple metric for basic okay-ness.
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#9Smart thermostat in their home, polling the API for "Away" status. As they have to walk past the thermostat to get from the bedroom to the living area and kitchen, the thermostat should never switch to Away mode based on the timeout set. As someone else mentioned, Philip's Lifeline for a smooth push button emergency UX (also supports fall detection). Calls to check in and say hello (I set Siri reminders, ymmv).
What if they leave the house?
Re: Ask HN: How do you watch for health emergencies for elder family members?
#10If you're in the USA - Snug Safety is a great option for seniors living alone who are not ready or don't want a Life Alert necklace.
Website: https://snugsafe.com
Snug is available for Android (Google Play) and iOS (iPhone only).
Disclaimer: I currently work on Snug Safety. Please send any questions to support@snugsafety.com and we'll definitely be able to answer them.