Stay Connected To Your Family & Friends
Family and friends play a big part in our lives and it is important to stay in touch with the ones we care about the most. Available at Home Health Tech, Bellman & Symfon offers a solution if you sometimes have difficulty hearing the doorbell or when the telephone rings.
The Bellman Visit Value Pack includes everything you need for a wireless alert system that lets you know when your doorbell or telephone rings. Designed for those with hearing loss, the Bellman Visit System provides powerful flashing alerts to help you recognize everyday events at home.
See it here: www.homehealthtechstore.com/Bellman-Visit-Value-Pack-4-BSHCVISITVP4
Signs Your Elderly Parent May Be Unsafe Living Alone
This information comes from AssistedLiving.com. The information was released in September of last year, but is still very relevant today.
It can be difficult to tell the difference between normal, age-related decline and something more serious. According to Alan Gruber, M.D., a psychiatrist with a private practice in Massachusetts, there are several ways a loved one can tell if an elderly relative is losing his or her independence. Here are some things to look for:
1. Missed appointments: Failing to meet a friend or doctor without cancelling in advance may be a sign of declining health.
2. Maintaining hygiene: Pay attention to body odor, grooming, incontinence and dressing according to the season.
3. Easily disoriented: A failure to recognize familiar spaces, wandering, or getting lost in well-known areas are early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease.
4. Loss of memory: Forgetting something at the store is a sign of “benign” memory loss; forgetting something at the store and not remembering that you did when someone reminds you of it is “malignant,” or pathological memory impairment and bears a closer look.
10 States with the Most Affordable Assisted Living Costs
St. Joseph Assisted Living Center in Montana
When I worked as an Eldercare Resource Coordinator for A Place for Mom, I had countless conversations with families and seniors who were in the process of searching for care. I remember one elderly woman in particular, we’ll call her Janet, who asked me, “What state has the cheapest assisted living?” Janet lived alone and had no living family, but she needed hands-on care. She was in an akward financial position such that her income was too high to qualify for Medicaid, but not really enough to afford the care and housing she needed.
Most people would agree that it’s sad and unfortunate that a senior would who need to consider leaving their state to afford care, but economic realities aren’t always friendly. Janet genuinely saw moving out of state to be the solution to her dilemma.
At the time, I didn’t have the data below, so I didn’t have an answer for Janet on our call. I speculated that states with lower housing costs would also have lower assisted living costs, but urged her to reconsider moving out of state. By putting her income in what’s called a Miller Trust, I told her, she could potentially qualify for Medicaid after all.
Assisted Living Costs
Ultimately, Janet did not end up needing to leave her state. But if there are any other Janets out there, here’s a list of states where assisted living is most affordable according to our 2012 2012 Cost of Care Survey. As one might expect, southern states and plains states are somewhat over-represented on this list. These figures are based on the average cost of a one-bedroom assisted living apartment in the state:
51. Montana ($2,559)
50. South Dakota ($2,630)
49. Idaho ($2,687)
48. Oklahoma ($2,706)
47. Mississippi ($2,784)
46. North Dakota ($2,808)
45. Indiana ($2,884)
44. Tennessee ($2,913)
43. Kentucky ($2,916)
42. Michigan ($2,927)
For this analysis we counted the District as Columbia as state, hence the rankings end on #51 instead of #50.
Dakim BrainFitness Is Named a 2013 Silver Edison Award Winner
The Edison Awards, celebrating 26 years of honoring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services, announced that Dakim BrainFitness was voted a silver winner for innovation at the April 25 event at Navy Pier in Chicago.
Being recognized with an Edison Award is one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business. The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements literally changed the world.
“Our judges recognized Dakim BrainFitness as a true innovator out of the many products in its category,” said Frank Bonafilia, executive director of the Edison Awards.
Dakim BrainFitness is available at Home Health Tech:
www.homehealthtechstore.com/Dakim-Brain-Fitness-Software-DBBX0112HKA
Brain Pacemakers Offer Promise To Treat Alzheimer’s
A recent story is Long-Term Living shows some promising news for those that are affected by Alzheimer’s disease:
Here’s the Story: In October 2012, a woman with Alzheimer’s disease was implanted with a brain pacemaker. The procedure, which was performed at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, is the beginning of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved study at that facility to determine if deep brain stimulation (DBS) can be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The study will include up to 10 patients suffering from mild or early Alzheimer’s disease, each of whom will have pacemakers implanted in their brains.
The study, which is being conducted by Dr. Douglas Scharre, neurologist and director of the division of cognitive neurology, and Dr. Ali Rezai, neurosurgeon and director of the neuroscience program at the medical center, will hopefully determine if a brain pacemaker can improve cognitive and behavioral functioning in Alzheimer patients by stimulating certain areas of the brain with a pacemaker.
Senior Housing & Aging-Friendly Markets Growing
Now is the time to get going in the senior-friendly housing market! “Bottom line: There are a lot of people now who need affordable housing and the demand is going to grow significantly.”
- EFA 2013: Demand for affordable senior housing soars. No end in sight. (Long-Term Living, April 2013)
“The opportunities, like the options, are many. Rewards will go to the most innovative and creative professionals. And as the aging populations in other countries is growing at a faster rate than that in the U.S., there are additional opportunities in the global marketplace.”
- EFA 2013: Consumers drive trends in aging-friendly housing market (Long-Term Living, April 2013)
How do I choose a medication management device?
Pillboxes have been on the market for decades. A multitude of different pillboxes exist today at the consumer level and can be purchased at local pharmacies and drug stores. Home Health Tech by Home Controls offers the next generation of these simple pill boxes.
A bit of technology can assist with medication compliance, including providing reminders, better self-management, accurate records and much more.
But which medication management device is the best fit for you or your loved one? There are many factors.
- Do you need an alert if medication is missed?
- Are you active outside of the home and may need to take a day’s worth of medication with you?
- How many pills do you take daily? How many times a day? What size are they?
- Do you need a convenient way to keep track of which medications you are taking and when?
- Do you prefer an auditory alert, or visual, or both?
- Are you concerned about having access to more then one dose at a time? Perhaps when pain medication is involved?
These are some of the many questions that can help you determine which device best suits your needs. Take a look at our Medication Management Device chart to determine which product is best for you.
See all Home Health Tech medication management devices HERE >>
Home Health Dealer Program!
Have you joined the ranks of the growing Home Health Dealer community? Home Health Tech has a FREE dealer program exclusively for the growing home health and caregiving industry.
Available exclusively through Home Health Tech by Home Controls: The Home Health Dealer Program is for professional integrators and care providers that provide assistance for the independent living or aging in place market. This program is ideal for system integrators expanding into the independent living market, home health professionals who see the value of adding technology to their offerings, durable medical equipment companies and more.
Dealer Benefits
- Web based training on home health technology systems and products
- Informative, targeted emails with sales and marketing tips along with industry and new product information (bi-monthly)
- Independent living project ideas
- Special Home Health Dealer Wholesale pricing on all Home Health Tech products and Internet access code to convert pricing to wholesale level online
- Marketing and sales resources specific to the home health technology industry
- Largest home health technology distribution offering, and growing quickly!
- Huge stock commitment. We’ll have what you want, and enough of it!
- FREE technical support
- No minimum order size required
- FREE ground shipping on orders more than $1,000 in the continental USA (some limits apply)
- No restocking fee on un-installed returns within 60 days of purchase
- Guaranteed lowest prices backed with price matching up to 30 days from your order
- Same day shipping on in-stock items placed by 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time
- FREE System Design Service
- FREE custom stocking
- Full 12-month repair or replacement product warranty
- Friendly, courteous service
Sign up for Home Heath here » It’s FREE!
Misperceptions about the telemedicine market
In an article posted on mHiSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), Jonathan Linkous (CEO of the American Telemedicine Association) discusses 6 misperceptions about the telemedicine market.
“Healthcare is a $2.5 trillion market in the United States and growing. Companies, institutions and individuals from everywhere are looking to see how to get a piece of the healthcare market. It’s the gold rush of the 21st Century, and health technology is where a lot of companies are staking a claim. Now that excitement is turning to telemedicine. The variety of new entrants is vast – vendors selling devices or software, health systems using telemedicine to expand their market share and new providers of remote health services. ”
Read the full article for explanations of the 6 misperceptions listed below.
- It’s not the technology – it’s the service
- Despite what you hear, Medicare reimbursement is not the Holy Grail for telemedicine
- Healthcare institutions, physicians and industry are partners, not enemies
- Device regulation is not bad – it’s good
- A great idea is born every minute, but few of them are successful
- Consumers don’t buy healthcare themselves
Six misperceptions about the telemedicine market: Read the full article HERE >>
Show the seniors in your life just how technology helps them
The Society of Senior Advisors published an article describing the benefits of assistive technology, and directed it right at seniors. Unlike many articles out there directed at caregivers, this article speaks to the senior themselves, describing the challenge they may be facing, and then the technology that will assist them with it. It uses friendly language, and explains things many writers take for granted that their audience knows. For example, the term ‘smartphone’ is described in simple and clear terms, and the differences between a ‘smartphone’ and a traditional cell pone is explained.
This is a great article to read and then discuss with the senior in your life.
Read full article here: How Technology Can Be Your Friend
Find many of the technologies listed in the article, as well as many more, at the Home Health Tech Store.
Home Health Tech 