WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY JOURNALISM 421B
EDITOR:JUDI HETRICK
HETRICJL@MUOHIO.EDU
The Second Watch: Technology as a Watching Eye for Loved Ones
By Abbey Schrader
Imagine, you are mowing your lawn and trying to care for a family who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. You try to get the yard in order, but you have the constant fear that your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa or whomever, may fall down the stairs and hurt themselves without your constant watchful eye. Wouldn’t it be easier if you had some sort of monitoring device to warn you of these disasters? Now, professor Jennifer Kinney and senior researcher Cary Kart are exploring whether the use of video surveillance can help people care for loved ones with dementia.
The Miami gerontology researchers have tested their idea, dubbed the SAFE house project, with 20 Ohio families dealing with dementia, the loss of cognitive function in the brain caused by disease or trauma.
The families needed a computer, a broadband Internet connection, a home-security system, cameras, sensors, a controller and a cellular phone with the text-messaging option. These advances in technology, which were supplied for the study but which are available at the store, allowed these families to check in with and know where the person with dementia was at all times.
For instance, if a residence had a motion-detector sensor on the door leading to the basement and someone opened the door, approximately 10 seconds later, a care-giver’s cell phone would ring and display the text message: “BASEMENT DOOR OPEN.”
In the Kinney-Kart study, the monitoring devices – coordinated by a Web site operated and maintained by the Xanboo company -- were in homes for 24 weeks. The families also received biweekly calls to check on what they liked and disliked about the service. Over the 24 weeks, six families were lost to attrition, but 14 families said the system made life easier and gave them more peace of mind.
Bob Reeves cared for his father who had dementia with this set of devices and found it to be very useful.
“It gave me freedom from constantly having to have my father in my presence. I was even able to check on my father through the Internet when I went on a trip to Alabama and another one to Chicago. It was nice to see he was being cared for correctly (by another at-home caregiver) and not have to worry,” said Reeves.
Reeves found the SAFE house project to be so useful that even after the 24 weeks were up he continued to use it until his father passed away. Reeves’ only complaint was that during peak hours for cell phone use, the response time of the sensor, to computer, to cell phone was not fast enough.
“I just wish the call went straight to the cell phone and not through the computer Web site,” said Reeves.
Funding for the research which took place during 2002 and 2003, came from from Shoupp Award, the Ohio Long Care Research Project, Fraternal Order of Eagles and local businesses that donated computers. The families in northwestern and central Ohio were identified with help from the Area Agencies on Aging.
When asked how the SAFE house project fits into the grand scheme of things, Kinney replied,
“There is a place for this service in homes, but it can’t solve all the problems that people may run into.”
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