FaceTiming with the grandkids isn’t the only way technology has made life better for seniors. Here are our favorite tech innovations for helping older adults stay safer and healthier—and in turn giving their families and caregivers greater peace of mind.

Like a friendly fly on the wall, this health platform utilizes a wrist wearable to watch over your loved one in minute detail. Using artificial intelligence, the technology learns a patient’s habits to identify potentially problematic changes in routine. Making more nighttime trips to the bathroom? Could be an early indicator of a urinary tract infection. Avoiding bright lights and sunshine? Might be a sign of depression. Not sleeping as much? Could pose a potential fall risk. Alerting caregivers to these sometimes-subtle shifts in activity enables them to proactively intervene before small problems become big ones. In senior care settings, this technology has resulted in 69 percent fewer falls and a 39 percent reduction in hospitalizations.

Safely You

The fear of falling is very real for seniors and their families, and with good reason: Falls are the leading cause of injury death for adults over age 65. Fortunately, technology stemming from UC Berkeley’s AI Research Lab has helped reduce fall-related emergency room visits by 80 percent at some care facilities. How does it work? Cameras installed in consenting patients’ rooms use artificial intelligence to detect when a fall occurs and automatically notify staff. Immediate video review enables staff to determine if an injury has occurred, as well as how the fall happened—a big step toward preventing future incidents. Safely You has also drastically reduced the amount of time patients spend on the ground after a fall, which is a major predictor of post-fall prognosis. In one study at six California memory care facilities, the technology slashed the proportion of fallers who spent more than an hour on the ground from one-third down to zero, and helped more than three-quarters of fallers receive staff help in 10 minutes or less.

Caregiver Smart Solutions

 If wearables and video monitoring aren’t your loved one’s thing, this sleek technology offers similar peace of mind with less intrusion. A network of quarter-sized movement sensors and temperature and humidity trackers placed throughout the home or apartment shed subtle insight into seniors’ daily activities. A sensor on the refrigerator door or medicine cabinet signals whether they are eating often enough or taking their medications on schedule. Monitors throughout the home detect movement and can indicate a potentially concerning decrease in activity. And sensors at the entrance and exit doors can ease caregivers’ fears about seniors wandering outside of the home. Integrated with strategically placed emergency buttons and an app-enabled smart hub, the system provides caregivers with up-to-date insights into what’s going on with their loved ones when they can’t be there.

Contemplating the next chapter in your loved one’s story? Click here to learn more about Bickford Senior Living and to find a branch near you.