The CareMate® Service

Introduction

We offer an innovative, and practical, electronic assistive service, called the CareMate® Service. It can help both seniors who live independently and family caregivers.

Specifically, the Service can help seniors to continue living in their own homes, for longer, and avoid being forced to move out, possibly into a nursing home.

In addition, the Service can help the family caregiver to provide better assistance to a senior loved one. And to make it easier to provide assistance.

The following provides more information.

The CareMate® Service for Seniors

What The Service Addresses

Many seniors who live independently have various degree of mental decline. Mental decline can cause seniors to have difficulty carrying out daily living tasks:

• Forget to do a task
• Lack the motivation ("mental energy") to do a task
• Do not do a task because they can’t think clearly, at the present time

In addition, a poor mental state (not feeling well; depressed) can cause the senior to have difficulty doing daily living tasks.

The ramifications of not carrying out important daily tasks can be serious:

• Result in accelerated health decline
• Could result in emergencies
• Reduced quality of life
• Will be forced to move out sooner than anticipated

How The Service Works

Our Service automatically makes telephone calls to seniors and then gives them helpful, pre-recorded reminders and messages, at various times of the day.

An example of a reminder is: "Please take your morning medication now."

Each reminder and message can help the senior with a specific daily living task or activity. Without the reminder/message, the senior could have difficulty carrying out the task due to mental decline issues.

Specifically, the reminders can help in several ways:

• Enable the senior to remember that they have to do the task, in case they forgot
• Can motivate the senior to do the task, when the senior doesn’t "feel" like doing the task
• Can get the senior to do the task, even if the senior is having trouble thinking clearly at the moment.

These reminders can increase the probability that the senior will do (important) daily living tasks.

Examples of Automatic Reminders For Seniors

The Service can provide benefits to the senior, by automatically providing reminders (and messages):

• Take medication
• Doctor’s appointment
  • Do a task: Pay bills; get garden tiller tuned up
  • Check that the stove is turned off before going to bed
  • Lock the car doors
• Encourage / motivate: "Eat healthy today"; "Get some exercise"; "Clean the house"
• Family birthdays and anniversaries
• Social events, such as: bowling and bingo.
• Mental health messages: "Smile, it’s a wonderful day"

Easy To Use By Seniors

The senior just needs a regular telephone to use the Service. They just have to answer their telephone when the Service calls, and listen to the pre-recorded message.

They sometimes will be asked to press a key on the telephone keypad.

If they have a cellphone, they can use the Service wherever they go.

The CareMate® Service for Family Caregivers

What The Service Addresses

Many family caregivers spend a lot of effort and time providing assistance to a senior loved one. This includes giving reminders to the senior. They check in on the senior, to see if the senior carried out a task, or to be sure that they are all right.

At the same time, the family caregivers give a lot of energy to their job and family.

The result is that they become very stressed out from all these demands.

The ramifications of all this stress can be serious:

• Not able to help senior much, resulting in poor outcome for the senior
• Poor health for the family caregiver
• Reduced productivity at work, possibly affecting employment
• Problems at home, with one's spouse and/or children

How The Service Works

Our Service automatically sends text message Alerts to the cellphone of family caregivers. These Alerts are sent when the CareMate® Service detects an unacknowledged reminder or message. This happens when the senior does not press a key to acknowledge a reminder or message.

An example of an Alert is: "Senior has not indicated that they took their morning medication."

When a family caregiver receives an alert, she/he can respond quickly if they so desire.

Auto Alerts can help make it easier for family caregivers to provide assistance to senior loved ones.

Examples of Automatic Alerts For Family Caregivers

The Service can provide benefits to the family caregivers, by automatically providing Alerts, such as:

• Senior did not take medication
• Senior is not feeling well
• Senior did not go to doctor’s appointment
• The senior has not answered their telephone
• The senior’s phone has been busy for a long time
• Senior did not do a scheduled task today, such as paying the bills
• Senior indicated that she/he will not exercise today

Other Features For Family Caregivers

The Service provides other valuable features that can be a benefit to family caregivers:

1. Automatically Carries Out Some Caregiver Tasks

   The CareMate® Service automatically makes telephone calls to the senior and gives reminders and messages. This offloads these tasks from the family caregiver.

2. View Compliance Information

   As the Service makes telephone calls to the senior and delivers reminders, messages and compliance checks, it is collecting information associated with the calls, such as:

   • Did senior answer the call?
   • Did senior respond with a Yes (by pressing a key)?
   • Was the line busy?

   The Service saves this information in a database.

   The family caregiver can view this information, at any time, with a personal computer and an Internet connection.

   Viewing this information can help the family caregiver in several ways:

   1. Confirm that the senior is doing the tasks that she/he is supposed to be doing. This can give the family caregiver increased peace of mind.
   2. Determine if there is a problem with the senior, and respond to it.
   3. Look for patterns of behavior of the senior that could indicate issues. Then come up with ways to improve the situation.

Easy To Use By Family Caregivers

The family caregiver just needs a cellphone to receive text message alerts.

They need a personal computer with Internet connection to view compliance information.

Programming The Service

To use the Service, two things must happen:

1. Someone must initially set up the Service.
2. Someone must regularly update the Service

That someone will be the family caregiver.

Setting Up and Updating the Service is quite easy to do. The family caregiver uses a personal computer or laptop with Internet access to connect to a special Service Management website. Here, they can manage (add, change, delete) the following:

• Reminders, messages, and compliance checks that are sent to the senior
• Alerts triggers that are sent to the family caregiver

With the family caregivers doing the setting up and updating of the Service, the Service is very easy for the senior to use.