When I first started CarePenguin, I did countless interviews with people about how they cared for their elderly loved ones. There was one commonality among everyone: they all had a “story.” These stories almost always consisted of their elderly parent falling and no one finding out for hours or days, and then realizing they needed a way to keep tabs on them.
Boulder mom and hairdresser Lisa was kind enough to share the story about her parents and how CarePenguin would have impacted her life.
Lisa’s story
Lisa wasn’t particularly close with her parents, but she still called them every other month to check in. One day, she called and there was no answer and no call back for days, which was out of the ordinary as her parents always called back within hours.
After a few days went by, Lisa called the police and asked for a welfare check on her parents. It was then that she found out that her parents had both had incidents that landed them in a nursing home.
She was informed that her mom had fallen, broken her hip, and had to spend the remainder of her life in nursing care. Shortly after, without her mom there to remind him, her dad stopped taking his medication, which eventually caused him to collapse inside his home. A neighbor found him fallen and unconscious and took him to the ER. He also had to spend the remainder of his life in nursing care.
All of this had happened without Lisa knowing. Her parents never bothered to tell her or her siblings about these incidents or that they were in nursing care.
How CarePenguin could have helped
Even though Lisa did not have a close relationship with her parents, she loved them and wanted to know they were safe and healthy. She expressed how CarePenguin could have helped in her situation.
“I would have known something was up when the water use activity decreased once my mom moved into nursing care and it was just my dad living there. After that, I would have known when he fell due to a lack of activity altogether.”
CarePenguin supports all types of families. From those like Lisa who check in a handful of times a year to those that talk everyday. No matter what type of relationship you have with your family, CarePenguin provides an extra level of peace of mind, so you can rest assured that if something happens within the 12 hours or 2 months in between your check ins, we’ll let you know. CarePenguin is available exclusively on our website. Get peace of mind by signing up for CarePenguin today!