Using Social Media To Help Organize Caregiving For A Senior: From Monterey, CA Private Duty Company

Many senior citizens remain hooked on old-school media like print. At Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey, our biggest source of new Clients is referrals, followed by newspapers. Yes, some people still read newspapers! Old habits are hard to break. And although the rest of their families are likely to be more into mobile, the Internet and social media for communicating, much of the elderly population has yet to embrace new media. Still, many of these technologies can be used to share information about a loved one who is in their golden years.
The Wall Street Journal had a story in their March 5-6 Weekend Investor edition entitled “Sending Out An Elder-Care SOS”. It spoke of the many tools that family caregivers can use to communicate with each other, and share information about an elder loved one. These sites allow families to post messages, blogs and photographs, as well as receive feedback from those in the network.
According to a report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and the American Association of Retired Persons, about 43.5 million Americans look after someone 50 or older, an increase of 28% over 2004. The following shows some of the most popular web sites. They have varying services. Some are ad-supported and some receive funding from nonprofits such as the Alzheimer’s Association and the American Lung Association.
CaringBridge (www.caringbridge.org). Accessible directly or through hospitals, this service helps families communicate efficiently with friends and relatives, via technology including blogs and message boards.
CareCentral (www.carecentral.com). When someone volunteers to help, the site makes note of the obligation and emails reminders to that person. It includes a “news feed” that makes it easy to see which members have posted when.
CareFlash (www.careflash.com). Contains links to videos on topics including medical conditions and treatments.
CarePages(www.carepages.com). Includes places to post photographs, blogs and messages and receive feedback.
eCare Diary(www.ecarediary.com). Contains links to research on diseases and to Medicare and state databases of resources, including assisted-living facilities and home-health agencies. The site receives a commission of about 4% on sales of care-related products.
Lotsa Helping Hands(www.lotsahelpinghands.com). Caregivers can upload financial, legal or medical documents and initiate discussions in areas that restrict access to select members.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Organizing care for a loved one can be a complicated matter, whether it be paid private-duty caregivers, family and friends, or a combination of both. The WSJ story focused on Joe Micall, who was accepted into an assisted-living facility last July in Springfield, Mass. only on the condition that his family coordinate around-the-clock companionship for him. “It’s a typical high-end assisted-living facility,” his nephew, Phil Micall, told the WSJ. “It’s very comfortable and serves great meals. But it’s not equipped to deal with a resident who presents a wandering risk,” he said. By recruiting 10 relatives via Lotsa Helping Hands, he was able to provide family companionship 70% of the time, hiring paid caregivers for the remaining 30% of uncovered hours.
At Family inHome Caregiving, we have Clients spread all over the county, from Gilroy, Hollister and Salinas down to Greenfield, Gonzales, King City and Soledad. Their families are often scattered far and wide. Some of our Clients have family locally, but many have them hundreds of miles away and even out of state. We use a combination of paper and electronic delivery to let the family members know what is happening with their loved one. In the home, we have a care book where the caregivers record daily activities and make notes to communicate with myself and other caregivers. If the family is not local, we send them copies of this document. Additionally, we have a computer system where caregivers can make notes to myself or each other, and family members can go in and check who is scheduled to come in and at what time. We also have a telephony system where caregivers call in to let us know when they arrive. It automatically alerts me if someone hasn’t arrived within 15 minutes so I can quickly react and find a replacement, if need be, if a caregiver has had an emergency and is running late. As all of this shows. organizing care for a loved one isn’t an easy task. But with the help of technology, you can make sure your senior is safe and sound in their own home.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703749504576172761763739154.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

About the Author

After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member Richard Kuehn was dissatisfied with service from local caregiving agencies. He became convinced of the need for a service which provides very personal assistance to the elderly and founded Family inHome Caregiving serving the Monterey Peninsula.