"High-tech sensors help kids keep eye on aging parents "

[Janit]

richorlin wrote:
"Dad, we found this nice assisted-living facility for you. You're going and that's final or we won't be coming around any more"

Tough-love for parents.

The problem is that the move to assisted living can be terribly disruptive, even for someone who WANTS to move. For those who don't want it, such a move can lead to depression and a dramatic acceleration in cognitive decline. The house a person has lived in for most of their life functions as a supplemental memory bank and emotional support that outside observers often don't appreciate.

Like the air we breathe, the importance of this support can be invisible until we have lost it. In a culture that values motion, we have a social fantasy that moving should be easy. In fact, it is often extremely difficult, and even harder as we age.

This is one reason why the concept of "aging in place" has become so prominent in contemporary city planning. The members of the baby boom have realized that assisted living looks too much like warehousing to their taste, especially after watching their parents suffer through it.

My 87 year-old uncle complained that living in community so homogeneous was deadly boring, and he wished he could live around people who were livelier and younger. What was his idea of "young"? We asked him, and he replied, "Oh maybe 65 or so."

[DinerDave]

I feel for you, my 90 year old MIL has dementia, and thinks nothing is wrong with her. Last year she fell twice, once a cracked rib, once a hairline hip fracture, Uses a cane only because she has for 10 plus years and accepts it. Refuses a walker, Quote: "Those are for old people". We do have a visiting PCA that she accepts, sees her about 4 hrs a day, goes for car rides, ice cream, etc. Stuff she did when younger.
Won't accept or understand cell phones or Alert Buttons.

So while the tech is great, using on a generation that doesn't understand it or a person with dementia will be tough.

Dave