Through the use of a watch, room sensors, and an app, Care Bloom provides 24/7 health monitoring services for caregivers. Lindsay Friedman and Shannon Lyons join Suzanne to talk more about the Care Bloom watch and app, an innovative new tool to assist senior loved ones with aging in place.

Listeners, sign up for free to win one year of Care Bloom! Care Bloom is holding drawings in June and September 2024. There's no obligation or commitment to purchase. Learn more at https://carebloom.com.

Shannon describes the information a caregiver can see on the app. "We really want to pull the most important information forward for a caregiver. You're gonna be able to see information like vitals, so that would include temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. You're also going to be able to see accurate location data, where they're spending most time, if they're in the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and really how how the mobility looks throughout the home. And then the last one is, you're going to be able to see important health behavioral data.

"We know that there's a lot of smart watches on the market that tell you you're going to get this health and wellness data. How we're different is that we take that health data, and we put it in the context of behavioral. And those things look like sleep, mobility, or steps throughout the home, and then self-care, like toileting and bathroom, so that you can really be proactive in your care. You're not finding out that mom hasn't left her bedroom for six hours and you're getting off of work and saying, 'mom, what's going on.' You're going be able to see that there's stagnation, and maybe something's wrong, so that you can communicate earlier, find out what's going on, and be more proactive with what your next steps are. We also thought it was really important to be able to set alerts in the home. So if there's a restricted room — a room that is a fall risk, like the basement, garage, or stairwells, we want to be able to tell you, hey, mom's out in the basement right now, and you can call her and say, 'hey, I'm coming over after work to do laundry. I see that you're in the basement. Let's make sure you get up those stairs,' so that you're not finding out about it after that. Or if your loved one has issues with leaving the home at times that they're not supposed to, or maybe wandering, we want to make sure that elopement is part of the alert package, so that it really is sort of all of those behaviors. And then if your loved one needs assistance, they can actually request it through their watch. And that notification goes directly to your app. It's a push notification, and you can see mom needs help, she's currently in the bathroom, and you're able to make a plan for what's next."

Lindsay gave an example of Care Bloom solving a problem. "We had one individual who was talking about how lightheaded he was, and feeling fatigued, and he was an elderly gentleman, and you start to wonder what's going on. His vital signs were looking good, but after watching him for a series of days, we were noticing that there were no toilet activities. So, went in and kind of monitored him for a little bit, and he wasn't drinking. No one was there reminding him it's time to have a glass of water, it's time to drink during the day. And dehydration really plays heavily on our seniors with confusion and all of that. It was an easy thing to remedy, that we were able to see within a matter of days. No doctor trip, nothing. And it was a quick fix that, just from looking at the data, was able to be resolved."

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Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network. Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.