'Granny Cams' Keep Caregivers in Loop

You can watch live video of your kids at day care and your dog at the kennel, and now you can go online to see what grandma is doing.

The Colonie Senior Service Centers introduced a video system that allows caregivers to use the Internet to see their loved ones at the center's adult day care program. Leaders at the center believe they are the first in the area to offer the service for seniors.

Anne Decker of Albany said she doesn't worry about the care her husband receives at the program. "I don't think they are beating Joe," she said, but she likes the new camera system. Her husband, Joe Decker, suffers from Alzheimer's disease and attends Colonie day care regularly to give Decker a break.

Decker said she uses the time to unload the dishwasher, do some chores or grab coffee with friends. Decker said she welcomes the video system to check in on her husband. Watching the workers interact with him could give her ideas for communicating with him, she said. The other day, she asked her husband to take out the trash and he put the garbage in the back of their car.

She said her four sons will be able to log into the video.

"I can use it for my computer-literate kids and spread some guilt," she quipped. "Here's your dad, now come and see him."

"Granny cams," as the video systems have been called, were hotly contested about four years ago. Several states, including Texas and New Mexico, passed legislation allowing families to set up cameras in nursing home rooms.

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