How ALEXA can benefit Seniors at home in 2024
No matter what we choose to do, technology will continue to advance and grow around us. Today I was speaking to a local provider through the VA, and couldn’t help but laugh when the lady on the phone said “I’ll fax this over to the __ department to request they call you asap.” I lost it! I said “You guys are still using FAX? In 2023!” She chuckled and said “It’s the best way for getting their attention over there…but we don’t use FAX machines…it’s an online FAX.” WOW! Isn’t that what EMAIL is for! FAX is out but so many new technologies are changing our lives, and one that everybody knows is ALEXA from Amazon!
As a CNA Agency, after 25 years we are very aware of the challenges facing seniors who live alone. As people age it becomes more difficult to do simple things like turning off all the lights in the house before going to bed. Alexa makes that super simple! The average cost for an Amazon Smart Home setup is about $1,500.
In December 2021 Amazon launched Alexa Together, allowing industrious families to find ways to make the artificially intelligent assistant help them when it comes to looking after a remote loved one. Electronically “dropping in” on an elderly family member to check on them! Alexa accounts can be “shared” with other family members so they can see their activities and know their family member is okay. This is super-efficient if your loved one isn’t good at answering the phone. First with Care Hub and now with Alexa Together, Amazon has developed new features based on how its customers shoe-horned the Alexa assistant into these use cases. The result is a product that could make the process of remotely caring for an elderly loved one easier and ultimately more helpful.
The service costs $19.99 a month or $199 a year and replaces the Care Hub service. For that fee, your elderly relative or friend gets a professional monitoring service and some more proactive features. There is a six-month free trial available, and all Care Hub customers get a free year of Alexa Together. This adds 24/7 hands-free access to a professional emergency helpline, allowing the user to say “Alexa, call for help,” to an Echo speaker and be connected with an agent. The agent can then request the dispatch of police, the fire department, or an ambulance, and Alexa also sends a notification to the designated caregiver.
There’s also a fall detection system that requires third-party hardware from Assistive Technology Services (ATS) and Vayyar. Vayyar Care costs $250 and is a wall-mounted device from the makers of Vayyar Home. It’s exclusively for Alexa Together (although Vayyar makes a standalone product, too) and uses sensors and radio waves to detect falls. ATS’s SkyAngelCare is a fall-detection pendant that communicates over Wi-Fi to Alexa.
Understand though. As a Senior Care company, we are not big fans of fall detection systems. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” made the technology mainstream, however once an elderly person has fallen down, their injuries may be more damaging.
In 2007 my grandmother, my heart, my favorite relative moved out of her home and into an independent living apartment. Months later she fell in the kitchen and fractured her pelvis. I flew from Atlanta to Tulsa to be with her in the hospital, where she died holding my hand. It was the worst day of my life.
What Alexa can’t do is drive grandma to the doctor’s office, grocery store, church, etc. Alexa can’t bathe Grandma and cook for her. Alexa can remind her to take medicines.
We believe an Alexa home system can help your loved one with simple things like phone calls, checking the weather and news, and turning out the lights when it’s time to go to bed.
Of course we’re not “promoting” Alexa, but we felt families may wish to consider getting the system for loved ones who don’t require a full-time Caregiver.