How Technology Can Help with Long-Distance Caregiving

Sandra Barber, Daily News
Published: November 21, 2014

Before his dad sits down to breakfast in snowy upstate New York, Jeff Leavens will have turned up the thermostat.

His 60-something father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As his condition progresses, he is increasingly dependent on family — never mind that Leavens lives clear across the country in Desert Hot Springs.

“I can turn the heat on, turn the heat off, turn the air on, turn the air off, adjust the settings,” says Leavens, who recently had a Honeywell Lyricthermostat professionally installed at his parents’ home that he controls by a smartphone app.

Although they cost more than their standard counterparts, smart thermostats like the Lyric ($279), Nest Learning Thermostat ($249) and Allure Energy’s EverSense ($299) are but one example of how technology is helping families care for loved ones who are aging in place, no matter where they live, provided there’s a Wi-Fi connection.

Right now, in-home telemonitoring devices, mobile apps and wearable devices can tell a long-distance caregiver whether his relative has opened the refrigerator, as well as send out medication reminders and monitor someone’s health.

“There are lots of technologies out there but technology has not been very responsive when it comes to special transportation,” says Gail Gibson Hunt, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, who in April co-convened a roundtable discussion around the report “Catalyzing Technology to Support Family Caregiving” aimed at spurring innovations in areas where they’re needed most.

“Transportation is an issue that long-distance caregivers have to deal with a lot because they’re stuck with ‘I make the appointment, I call mom to remind her that she’s got to go, but how do I get her there?’?”

Affordable rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, both accessed by smartphone app. are a start.

“Because Uber has exploded, I know they’ve been discussing how they can provide a better service to people with disabilities because currently people with disabilities have to take taxis,” Hunt says.

“If you as the adult child could enter the destination into the Uber request, it would know to pick up your mother-in-law at her address and take her to the address of Dr. Smith. That would be a way of helping with the transportation issue.”

Leavens is lucky. His siblings live close to their parents’ home to lend a hand. He pitches in where he can.

“There are more important things for my mother to worry about than does the air-conditioner filter need to be changed, and that’s where I come in,” says Leavens, who is a sales manager for the heating, air conditioning and indoor air quality services company ARS California in Palmdale and Corona.

The Lyric app alerts him when the filter needs to be replaced so he can send someone out to do it for her.

“To some people it may seem trivial but, to me, it’s huge because I can’t physically be there to do it,” he says. “So that’s how I help.”

Thermostats come with lots of different bells and whistles. Many detect when a homeowner is coming or going based on his smartphone’s location. When the house is empty, it switches into an energy saving mode. When it senses the person is returning, it heats or cools the house according to the programmed variants.

“I set it to break the chill in the house before my dad gets up at 6 o’clock,” Leavens says. “Knowing my parents go to bed after 11 o’clock, I have the temperature drop down after the news is over. Now, they can bypass it at any time manually for whatever situation arises.”

It helps out his siblings tremendously.

“If something happens, they can be there quickly,” he says. “But with this, they don’t have to be there all the time checking up to see if it’s on because I can do all that from my end.”