smart-gadgets-for-seniors-living-alone

Best Apps, Gadgets & Sensors to Check on Elderly Parents Remotely

There are numerous applications available these days, which can help you with remote care. We will now go into the details of these applications to make it easy for you to take care of your parents.

Here are the 10 best apps to monitor elderly parents remotely:

  1. For Daily Check-In: Snug Safety
  2. To Keep Seniors Safe all the time: Senior Safety
  3. For Medication Reminder: PillBoxie
  4. For Monitor Blood Pressure: Blood Pressure Monitor
  5. For Communication: Skype
  6. To Stay Connected: Oscar Senior
  7. For Emergencies: Red Panic Button
  8. For Health Profile and Emergency Contacts: In Case of Emergency
  9. For Tracking: Tell My GEO
  10. For Chronic Pain and Symptoms: Manage my Pain

Best gadgets to monitor elderly parents remotely:

  1. For Fall Detection, Critical Alert and Tracking: Care Go
  2. SOS Button: Philips Lifeline
  3. For Tracking: GPS Smart Sole
  4. For Medication Reminder: MedMinder
  5. For Medication (and other) Reminder: Reminder Rosie
  6. For Finances and taking care of the bills: SilverBills
  7. For Doorbells and Help buttons: SadoTech CXR Wireless Doorbell
  8. For a wide variety of tasks around the house: Alexa Assistant
  9. To monitor all essential needs: Apple Watch
  10. For 24/7 monitoring company with wearable gadget: Life Alert

Best Sensors for monitoring elderly parents remotely:

  1. Aeyesafe Monitoring Alert System
  2. Alarm.com Wellness
  3. Tru Sense
  4. Rest Assured
  5. Lorex Elderly Care Solutions
  6. EnvoyAtHome Motion Sensors
  7. Canary Care
  8. Kwido

In this post, we will highlight not only the applications, gadgets and sensors but also their functionality so that it becomes easy for you to use these applications.

10 Best Apps to Monitor Elderly Parents Remotely

1. For Daily Check-In: Snug Safety

Snug Safety is daily check-in service for seniors, epileptics and others with senior conditions living alone. A simple app that checks in on you every day. When you respond, it will share one of Snug’s favorite motivational quotes. If Snug doesn’t hear back, it will message your emergency contacts to let them know you might need help.

Snug checks in with you every morning at your selected time. When you take the big green check mark to check in you will get a positive quote of the day. But if you don’t, and you still don’t respond after multiple pings, your emergency contacts will be notified and their last known location. If you have the shipping plan, a coordinator will arrange a wellness check at your location.

If you want to learn more about Snug Safety, check our post “The Daily Check-In App Every Senior Living Alone Should Have”. And if you want to check somewhat similar apps, check our post “Best Free Check-In Apps Available Seniors Living Alone Right Now!”. As you can see, we take this subject very seriously and I personally took a lot of time looking for the best way to keep an eye on my 79-year-old mother since she started living alone after my father passed away.

Snug has a free plan where emergency contacts are alerted if someone doesn’t check in at their regular time.

For more information, check Snug Safety website.

Get Snug Safety for FREE on Google Play Store or App Store.

2. To Keep Seniors Safe all the time: Senior Safety

Senior Safety App is a free, unobtrusive app built to keep seniors safe. Senior Safety App remotely monitors phone location and is used to protect against falls, wandering, online scams & abuse around the clock.

Senior Safety App was designed to be installed on the Seniors smartphone. Caregivers get safety alerts with monitoring options via an online secure control panel. The app is popular with caregivers, concerned children of seniors and senior care homes too.

Monitor phone location & activity remotely over a web browser. Using a state-of-the-art GPS tracker, Senior Safety App helps you keep your elderly loved ones safe, with alerts for emergency help requests, malicious apps, phone falling, phone being inactive for a long time, app installs or uninstalls, entry/exit from geo-locations (buildings, streets, cities or neighborhoods), network changes (sim card change) and low battery alerts.

The app includes easy-to-use round-robin calling to reach one of the emergency contacts, this ensures help is received even if some emergency contacts may not answer their phone. This app was designed to help the elderly lead an independent life with their loved ones accessible at just a click of a button.

For more information, check Senior Safety official website.

Get Senior Safety for FREE on Google Play Store.

3. For Medication Reminder: PillBoxie

PillBoxie is an iPhone mobile app which can help your parents follow a proper medication schedule. The app allows you to create a customized pillbox and also set reminders. You can easily input all the data regarding the medications of your parents in the app and set the reminders to help them follow their medication schedule.

For more information, check PillBoxie official website.

Get PillBoxie on App Store.

4. For Monitor Blood Pressure: Blood Pressure Monitor

The Blood Pressure Monitor app is an iPhone app which helps your parents monitor their blood pressure consistently. It also tracks vital statistics and weight. You can also log in to the account of the app to check all the vitals of your parents. Hence; it is an immensely useful application.

Get Blood Pressure Monitor for FREE on App Store.

5. For Communication: Skype

Skype is a must have application in your and your parent’s smartphones if you want to stay connected. It will help you in video calling and also in communicating with you consistently. It is available on android and iPhone which means that you can easily install it on any smartphone.

For more information, check Skype official website.

Get Skype for FREE on Google Play Store or App Store.

6. To Stay Connected: Oscar Senior

Oscar Senior is one of the best Android and iOS apps to stay connected with your elderly parents. With the help of this app, your parents can now initiate One Touch video calls and even choose the auto answer button to receive your video calls. You can browse the Internet and share photos as well. You can easily track the activity of your parents with the help of this application and set reminders for them. If you’re looking for multiple features in a single smartphone application, this is the one which can certainly help you take care of your parents remotely.

For more information, check Oscar Senior official website.

Get Oscar Senior for FREE on Google Play Store or App Store.

7. For Emergencies: Red Panic Button

The Android/iOS app which we are speaking about now provides your parents with the panic button on their smartphone. Whenever they press it, the message is sent out to a predetermined list of contacts which alerts you of their current location and also of the fact that they need some help. You can easily install it on your parent’s smartphones.

For more information, check Red Panic Button official website.

Get Red Panic Button for FREE on Google Play Store or App Store.

8. For Health Profile and Emergency Contacts: In Case of Emergency

In Case of Emergency is an Android app that creates a lock screen notification of the profile of your parents. It will consist of their medical history, emergency contacts, and allergies. In case of an emergency, the first responders or the people nearby can quickly contact you even if the phone is locked. It means that you can get alerts within minutes in case of an emergency.

For more information, check In Case Emergency.

Get In Case of Emergency for FREE on Google Play Store.

9. For Tracking: Tell My GEO

Tell My GEO is an Android application which needs to be installed on your device as well as on your parents. It updates you on the location of your parents every 15 minutes. It is one of the best apps available to track the location of your parents.

Get Tell my GEO for FREE on Google Play Store.

10. For Chronic Pain and Symptoms: Manage my Pain

Pain Care is an Android application that helps you keep track of the chronic pain your parents might be suffering from and also understand the symptoms better. It enables you to create medical journals which you can then send to the doctors of your parents.

Get Manage my Pain for FREE on Google Play Store.

10 Best Gadgets to Monitor Elderly Parents Remotely

There are also quite a few gadgets and applications that can help your parents with different tasks like managing their finances, ordering food and securing their homes.

Best gadgets to monitor elderly parents remotely:

  1. For Fall Detection, Critical Alert and Tracking: Care Go
  2. SOS Button: Philips Lifeline
  3. For Tracking: GPS Smart Sole
  4. For Medication Reminder: MedMinder
  5. For Medication (and other) Reminder: Reminder Rosie
  6. For Finances and taking care of the bills: SilverBills
  7. For Doorbells and Help buttons: SadoTech CXR Wireless Doorbell
  8. For a wide variety of tasks around the house: Alexa Assistant
  9. To monitor all essential needs: Apple Watch
  10. For 24/7 monitoring company with wearable gadget: Life Alert

In this post, we highlight these gadgets so that you can quickly provide your parents with these devices to make their life more comfortable.

10 Best Gadgets to Monitor Elderly Parents Remotely

1. For Fall Detection, Critical Alert and Tracking: Care Go

This is a small, but powerful gadget that provides critical help in emergencies keep you safe, helps you remember your stuff and find the things you lost.

Care Go pushes alerts through smartphones to unlimited emergency contacts at the same time via Care Go App in both Android and iOS. If users are using iOS, protectors can receive Critical Alerts even if the phone is set to silent so they never miss a chance. Care Go is not only a personal safety device with GPS tracking but also a Bluetooth tracker for keys, phones, wallets, or others.

If you want to know more about this product, check our post “Care Go: a Brand New Gadget for Seniors Living Alone”.

If you want to check this product on Amazon, click here.

2. SOS Button: Philips Lifeline

Philips Lifeline comes in the form of a necklace or bracelet. Your parents can wear it on the wrist or on the neck. The gadget has a help button on it. It can also detect a fall and alert the preprogrammed contacts. It can help you take care of your parents and provide them with an SOS button in an emergency.

For more information, check Philips Lifeline official website.

3. For Tracking: GPS Smart Sole

GPS Smart Sole is a shoe sole which can allow you to track the location of your parents with the help of a smartphone or a web browser or a tablet. The shoe insert has GPS technology. It can fit in any existing shoe. You can also set up a safe radius for your loved one beyond which, you will get an alert. It is the most efficient ways to track your parents.

For more information, check GPS Smart Sole official website.

4. For Medication Reminder: MedMinder

MedMinder is a pill dispenser. It provides email and text alerts as well. The particular cavity stays locked until it is due. That is why; it is effortless for your parents to know which medication they have to take. The particular cavity lights up as well which can quickly help them understand which medication they need to opt for today. It is a gadget which can help them stick to their medication schedule.

If you want to learn more about medication reminders, read our post “How technology can help seniors to manage their medication”.

For more information, check MedMinder official website.

5. For Medication (and other) Reminder: Reminder Rosie

Reminder Rosie is a talking clock which reminds the patients to take the medications at a particular time. Your parents can easily use it for a variety of other reminders as well. That is why, when you want to ensure that your parents take medication on time and also remind them of other essentials, this is a gadget which you should buy them.

You can check this product on Amazon.

6. For Finances and taking care of the bills: SilverBills

SilverBills is the perfect solution to take care of the bills. It helps you to settle the bills on time. It means that your parents will face no difficulties at all in paying their bills. Even though it is just an app, but it can certainly take care of the bills on time from a linked account. This app also alerts a predetermined email ID regarding the variations in the bills if any. It is one of the perfect apps to take care of the bills. It means that all the utilities and necessities will always be functional in your parents’ house.

For more information, check SilverBills official website.

7. For Doorbells and Help buttons: SadoTech CXR Wireless Doorbell

You might be thinking what a doorbell is doing on this list. However, it is no ordinary doorbell. It consists of a base station at the Wireless Doorbell. You can easily program different tunes and different doorbells around the home. It means that your parents will directly know the doorbell being used. Also, it can work as help button as well.

Your parents can press the doorbell installed in the bathroom, living room, or any other room to indicate that they need assistance. It especially useful to gain the attention of a professional caregiver in case, your parents are alone at home. The adjustable volume ensures that your parents can easily modify it as per their requirements. The bells are Wireless which means that installing them is a cinch.

You can check this item on Amazon.

8. For a wide variety of tasks around the house: Alexa Assistant

Alexa Assistant can help your parents with a wide variety of tasks. However, it is also one of the best ways to order food. Your parents can easily order food from Amazon restaurants using Alexa assistant. That is why; it is a good piece of equipment which you can buy for your parents. It will also help them receive your calls and preprogram alerts which can help you with caring for your parents.

We wrote some posts about Alexa, here is just one of them “Alexa for Seniors With Memory Loss: Most Useful Tool for You!”.

9. To monitor all essential needs: Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is the perfect solution when you want to monitor the essentials of your elderly parents. It not only tracks the vitals but also has an electrocardiogram feature. There is an emergency SOS button for your parents to call for help. You can easily install a health monitor which will help you supervise the health vitals of your parents round-the-clock. It also has a fall detection feature that can alert you in case; your parents experience a fall. It also has GPS functionality which makes it easy for you to keep track of your parent’s vitals. That is why; it is a multipurpose health gadget that can help you take care of your parents.

These gadgets can certainly make the task of taking care of your elderly parents easier for you. Even if you’re at a remote location, with the help of these gadgets, you can easily ensure that your parents are completely safe and at ease.

You can check this item on Amazon.

10. For 24/7 monitoring company with wearable gadget: Life Alert

Finally, there is the famous monitoring company called Life Alert. This is the “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” company. They have been providing emergency alert services for seniors and people with medical problems 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for more than 32 years.

The Life Alert monitoring service works via a base station and a necklace (or a watch). It can detect falls indoors or outdoors and will summon help if the senior has a medical emergency. There are also additional features like a HELP button or GPS capability. Life Alert’s personnel will respond whether the patient answers or not and will alert first responder services and the senior’s family.

For more information, check Life Alert official website.

8 Best Sensors to Monitor Elderly Parents Remotely

There are also many different senior monitoring sensors that track a variety of environmental and physical factors and alert caregivers to potential safety issues quickly. By the way, the best way to monitor elderly parents remotely is through senior monitoring sensors. In this post, we explore senior monitoring sensors that track a variety of environmental and physical factors and alert family (and caregivers) to potential safety issues quickly.

Best Sensors for monitoring elderly parents remotely:

  1. Aeyesafe Monitoring Alert System
  2. Alarm.com Wellness
  3. Tru Sense
  4. Rest Assured
  5. Lorex Elderly Care Solutions
  6. EnvoyAtHome Motion Sensors
  7. Canary Care
  8. Kwido

What do Elderly Monitoring Systems Do?

Elderly monitoring systems are as unique as all seniors and families they serve. Each type of monitoring system comes with its own benefits, drawbacks, and costs. It is up to you to find one that meets your needs.

But despite their differences, most elderly monitoring systems can:

  • Give you access to an app that provides a daily dashboard of activity
  • Information about if your loved one is taking medications as needed, as well as if they miss a dose
  • Alert you if your loved one falls or if they call emergency services
  • Give you a way to communicate with your loved one without using their smartphone
  • Provide you with reports and insight that you can share with their physician

What to Look for in an Elderly Monitoring System?

When your priority is keeping a senior loved one safe, there are particular features you’ll want to consider:

  • Compatibility with smart tech: Smart technology can make many aspects of aging in place easier and home monitoring systems that tap into the smart tech you have can provide more data on how your loved one is living their life and going about their day. If they never turn the lights on outside their own room for a day, for instance, it might alert you that they’re sick in bed and need someone to take care of them.
  • Remote access: For many of these features to be useful, you need a way to see what’s going on from afar. If you can tap into the system remotely to check on how active your loved one has been or to see what they’re up to, then you can stay confident they’re safe and healthy without having to be in the room with them.
  • Monitoring sensors: Some home monitoring products include sensors that help track a person’s movement throughout the home. For loved ones worried about how active seniors are (or aren’t) these help you stay aware of their day-to-day activity, so you know sooner if there’s a problem.
  • Emergency button: An emergency button is normally something a senior would carry on them or wear to serve a similar purpose to fall detection. If anything happens – a fall, an injury, sudden pain – they can easily call for help with it. It’s especially useful for any seniors at risk of heart attack or stroke, where how long it takes to get help makes a huge difference.
  • Fall detection: Anyone that lives alone is at risk of falling and being stuck without help until a friend stops by or someone notices their absence. For seniors, of course, the risk is bigger as falls are more common due to balance issues and do more damage due to weaker bones. A monitoring system that includes a fall detection feature (usually on a wearable part of the product) will ensure your loved one gets help faster if they do fall.

Best Sensors for Monitoring Elderly Parents Remotely

1. Aeyesafe Monitoring Alert System

Aeyesafe Monitoring Alert System is a sound and thermal monitoring system that provides current and historical data. It doesn’t require human intervention for monitoring, which encourages independence. The system allows the user to request help if needed through voice activation, and it uses artificial intelligence sensors, which provide the closest to human-like ability of monitoring, giving seniors safety, privacy and dignity.

In using heat and sound monitors, the device provides:

  • Body temperature analysis
  • Sleep analysis
  • Danger detection
  • Abnormal behavior detection

Aeyesafe isn’t a wearable device — it’s voice-activated and operates from a distance with a substantial battery and power supply, and it comes with an app that keeps a behavioral history of your loved ones at their residence, providing moment-to-moment records and predictions warning you of potential dangers ahead of time.

For more information, check Aeyesafe Monitoring Alert System official website.

2. Alarm.com Wellness

Alarm.com Wellness is a partner to Alarm.com, a home security system. The two systems work together to provide comprehensive insight into the behavior and safety of seniors living on their own. The tracker can alert caregivers of abnormal behavior patterns in addition to monitoring light, temperature, and security settings. The system may be paired with personal emergency response (PERS) pendants.

The tracker provides info on:

  • Activity levels (livingroom motion)
  • Bathroom use (bathroom motion)
  • Eating habits (refrigerator sensor)
  • Medication management (medicine cabinet sensor)
  • Sleep patterns
  • Fires, intruders, or medical emergencies (front door, garage door)

For more information, check Alarm.com Wellness official website.

3. Tru Sense

Tru Sense provides passive monitoring for seniors using a set of connected sensors. The senior monitor system allows you to set alerts, which can monitor your loved one’s sleeping patterns, use of doors in the home, and vehicle activity. All alerts can be sent via text, email, or automated phone calls. It’s also connected to a 24-7 emergency response team in case of an accident or intruder.

Tru sense also detects:

  • Day Started / Not Started: Get an alert when your loved one gets out of bed in the morning, or if they stay in bed longer than usual. This can inform you of any safety issues that might have occurred overnight.
  • Vehicle Out of Area: Create a digital “safety zone”, and receive alerts if your loved one travels outside of a defined border while driving.
  • Door Open Too Long: Know when entry doors have been open for an unusually long time, in case your loved one forgets to close a door or lock up at night.
  • System Health: Be notified when the TruSense sensor batteries are running low.
  • Away From Home: Stay up to date on when your loved one has left home, and keep track of any abrupt changes to their daily routine.
  • Temperature Out of Range: Alert to unsafe temperature changes in the home.
  • Water Leak: Detect if an excessive amount of water leaks into any room susceptible to flooding.
  • Assistance Requested: Be notified when your loved one attempts to contact the TruSense 24-Hour Emergency Response team.

For more information, check Tru Sense official website.

4. Rest Assured

Rest Assured blends wireless monitoring and two-way video chat with specially trained caregivers to help the individuals you care about stay safe while living as independently as possible. Rest Assured offers a full suite of remote monitoring services and solutions to help seniors maintain healthy and safe lives. Family members can access live videos or sensor alerts through a protected portal online. The system can provide remote assistance with medication management and can detect emergencies like falls, fires, and even tornadoes.

The system may include any of the following devices:

  • Pan/tilt/zoom cameras
  • Two-way audio video screens
  • Motion detectors
  • Door and window sensors
  • Bed and chair occupancy sensor
  • Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
  • Room temperature sensor
  • Emergency buttons
  • Glass break sensor

Rest assured also offers the unique service of remote caregivers who can provide periodic wellness checks.

For more information, check Rest Assured official website.

5. Lorex Elderly Care Solutions

Lorex Elderly Care Solutions uses a Wi-Fi security camera system to monitor parents remotely. The camera system includes a microphone and speaker, allowing you to check in and communicate with your loved ones using your smartphone. It’s compatible with smart homes, can be controlled with no hands, and offers around-the-clock monitoring.

Additional features include:

  • Custom motion notifications
  • Full HD recording with digital zooming
  • Infrared night vision
  • Live video playback

For more information, check Lorex Elderly Care Solutions official website.

6. EnvoyAtHome Motion Sensors

A fairly new product and service is the EnvoyAtHome Motion Sensors.  This involves placing motion sensors throughout your senior loved one’s house.  There are no cameras or audio devices.  These sensors are then connected through an app on the caregivers’ phone.

Information is entered into the app about the daily routine of the person being monitored. 

The caregiver then gets alerts on their phone for events such as:

  • if the senior leaves the house
  • comes back into the house
  • spends an extra amount of time in the bathroom
  • what room they are currently in
  • what time they woke up
  • and other times as well

These monitored events are customizable.  The point is that you will be able to “keep alerted” as to where your senior loved one is throughout the day.

For more information, check EnvoyAtHome official website.

7. Canary Care

Caregivers can place the sensors in various locations throughout a loved one’s home to monitor activity. The system relies on mobile data instead of Wi-Fi to send information, so a caregiver can simply log in to the Canary Care portal (or check texts or email) to find out what their loved one is up to.

For more information, check Canary Care official website.

8. Kwido

Kwido Home is a system of non-intrusive sensors for elderly home monitoring system that helps telecare companies to take care of their users. It transforms homes into smart homes that monitor and care for the health of older people.  

Kwido Home: Sensor-based home monitoring system for the elderly. Monitors users’ routines and issues alerts when unusual situations arise.

Kwido Mementia: Digital cognitive stimulation programme designed to combat and detect, even from home, cognitive decline in the elderly.

Kwido Health: Telemedicine module for monitoring health variables. It includes alerts, monitoring for medication intake, as well as facilitating direct connection with family members and/or therapists.

For more information, check Kwido official website.

* After reading this post, we would appreciate you sharing your experience with us. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to receive more content from us. We really hope you enjoy!

You May Also Like

Comments

  1. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered It positively useful and it has helped me out loads.
    I am hoping to contribute & assist other users like its aided me.

    Great job.

    1. Author

      Hello Margart! thank you so much for your kind words 🙂 It means A LOT to me! This kind of message is basically the main reason I keep writing!

      Please feel free to suggest new topics you would like me to write about and I will certainly do it.

      In the meantime, if you want to keep on reading my new posts, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and I also have a Facebook page 🙂 And please share with your friends who can potentially benefit from this website as well! I hope you have a great day!

Leave a Comment