Alzheimer’s disease has lived with humans for ages.
It starts out small with difficulty remembering things that just happened but over time. However, this condition quickly degenerates into difficulty speaking, mood swings, disorientation, and inability to manage one’s basic care.
When the signs of Alzheimer’s become apparent, a family has to consider some tough choices.
Do we put our loved ones in an assisted living facility, or do we bring them to live with us?
Right now, we do not fully understand the causes of this neurodegenerative disease and there is no cure for it.
However, tools are available to help families manage and cope with the effects of Alzheimer’s.
Smartphone technology is one area where seniors and their families can find tools that were not available only 10 years ago.
These are 6 smartphone apps seniors can use to manage the effects and better understand this ailment.
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Power Sleep
Scientists at the University of Vienna designed the PowerSleep app.
This Android-based app serves as an alarm clock for patients. It helps researchers to decrypt protein sequences so they can better understand how these proteins are arranged and by extension, better understand Alzheimer’s.
Tapestry
One of the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s is forgetting family and friends.
The Tapestry app helps seniors keep in touch with family and other loved ones. It does this by providing a user-friendly, secure way to share pictures and messages.
Maintaining close contact with family and seeing pictures have been shown to improve a patient’s happiness and health.
CareSolver
Caregivers for Alzheimer’s patients face a difficult job daily. It is not uncommon to experience different stages of frustration, in some extreme cases. This poses various degrees of danger to Alzheimer’s patients.
CareSolver helps Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers by providing interactive demonstrations and tools for organizing daily tasks.
Backup Memory
This app was developed by Samsung. It was designed for people exhibiting the early signs of Alzheimer’s and helps by stimulating specific memories.
It identifies family members within a certain radius and reminds the patient of their relationship to this person. Some studies have shown how these types of reminders help slow the progression of the disease.
MediSafe
Managing medications is one of the biggest challenges for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers.
The MediSafe app provides a visual, user-friendly interface. This interface for ensuring the patient takes their medications at the right time and in the right amount. Not knowing if your parent or patient took their medications is one of the biggest stressors of being a caregiver.
Technophobia Challenges
Despite these and many other smartphone tools for helping Alzheimer’s patients, challenges do remain, including a condition called “technophobia.”
As the name suggests, this is a fear of technology.
It’s common with those who have suffered strokes or have Alzheimer’s. According to Kathleen Dobson, the big challenge is awareness.
Many seniors simply do not know technology tools are available to help Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. Despite these challenges and slow adoption among seniors themselves, these and many other smartphone apps are making strides in helping patients and caregivers better manage the disease.
Researchers have been able to obtain crucial information from these apps. Hopefully, Seniors and Caregivers will embrace technologies better.
We all hope to leverage technological advancement to help get help to find lasting solutions to Alzheimer’s disease.
