For many older seniors, the idea of moving into an assisted living area or losing some of their independence can be a tough idea to swallow.
Here is an article that gives some ideas on how to help your senior parents stay in their homes. You will need an Apple News account to read this link.
This is a summary of what you can find inside. The University Health Network’s Toronto Rehabilitation Institute set up a lab that is a fully functioning apartment that replicates the same accessibility challenges that seniors and their caregivers encounter so researchers can test out creative solutions to these common barriers.
It utilizes such things as grab bars, smart floors, helpful robots, cameras, bathroom monitoring devices, smart clothing, smart sheets, kitchen monitors, and smart outlet plugs.
“University Avenue in Toronto is lined with several major hospitals, but nestled inside one of them—University Health Network’s Toronto Rehabilitation Institute—is a fully functioning apartment, plopped right there on the twelfth floor amid a sea of standard office cubicles.
The one-bedroom apartment has no ceilings and is lined with cameras, “domestic robots” and motion-sensing detectors designed to keep residents safe as they age, recover from a stroke, or seek to live independently with a disability or dementia (for example). The “home within a lab” is also designed to replicate the same accessibility challenges that seniors and their caregivers would encounter in a typical home, so researchers can test out creative solutions to common barriers.
Yes, it’s all a bit Big Brother-y, but the catwalk, the robot, and the video cameras are there in the name of science. This is where Atena Roshan Fekr and her team of grad students at the KITE Research Institute HomeLab test out new products, design artificial intelligence data programs and build prototypes aimed at helping the 92 percent of Canadians aged 45-plus who would prefer to age in place, as opposed to living in a long-term care facility…Read More”
