How do I monitor a parent when I'm at work?

hello.
in my experience with monitoring my mom, I always prepared her meals,breakfast lunch and dinner the day before. her meds in med boxes. I always made sure wastebaskets were emptied each night. That way I knew what was thrown out. I only asked her to eAt her breakfast, washing dishes were not necessary. She lived in a senior housing apartment. a neighbor would look in on her. Eventually I hired my friend to stay with her a specific time of the day. Like lunch and dinner. Also, if you decide for a visiting nurse,primary dr writes up an order for a nurse to visit. it would occur for my mom after a hospital stay. When you invite help into your home sombody needs to be there to leave that trusted adult in your home.
I was there for the initial visit, and the nurse would call to let my mom know what time she was comming. She did well with that. Then I would ask the nurse to contact you or write her notes in a journal of her visit. I did the same with my hired friend. I had a journal of all that was done during her visit. What she ate, drank, activities, meds. Mood, bathroom events etc. It was so helpful.
Hope this helps.
Take care
Equinox

First of all, I have a medical alert system installed for anything of an emergency nature. They are inexpensive and give peace of mind. Secondly, I continually asked all of my mother's health care providers for recommendations for aides whom they knew until I found a real gem who both calls and checks in on my mom on a daily basis. She believes that the aide is her "friend", so we leave it at that, especially with her dementia. Even if it is four 3-4 hours per day, it is worth the peace of mind while you work.

One thing I have found useful is adult day care. There are programs where nurses are on staff and where they have all sorts of interesting activities available to do. Also, it is not so lonely to be with others. You can hire a "babysitter" to stay with her (does not have to be a nurse, just someone responsible).

Adult day health care. In my area they pick them up, provide a snack and lunch, and the social interaction is priceless! There are also professionals around your mother for a second par of eyes! Most seniors are resistant to day care, kind of like preschool anxiety! The progranms have 2 days, 3 days, and 5 day attendence schedules. Remember she'll need extra emotional support when starting. But by her 2-3 week she will begin to have some comfort. There are different social economic centers around so do your research until you find a comfortable match! Take care of all of you...good luck!

There are several "high-tech" innovations available today to help provide peace-of-mind for caregivers who find themselves geographically separated from those they are caring for. They run the gamut from remote ADL & "all is well" monitoring services, to safety & security products including solutions from vendors such as GrandCare, Sonamba, Independa, BeClose & SurePod to name a few. Often these products/services can be cost effective alternatives worth considering & also can help delay the difficult decisions of having to consider other forms of institutional care - which can be costly to undertake. I truly believe you will see more or these types of products coming to the marketplace to encourage aging-in-place more independently, safely & responsibly. Hi-tech will supplement not supplant, the hi-touch approach to caregiving as provided by friends & family caregivers and the healthcare professionals who support them.

I have been considering installing a camera system and the only problem with that would be that if something happens to her, in an area that isn't monitored, it wouldn't be dealt with right away. I'm thinking of getting a medical alert system as suggested by openheart2. I'm still looking at brands. I'm not sure which I want to go with yet...any suggestions?

Also, preparing things before hand was another great idea. Thank you all for these responses. I'm going to tie together the bits and pieces that will work best for my mom.

I use Life Station, which I found to be quite affordable. They also do an excellent job, as I have been called on numerous occasions, and they kept my mother talking until I arrived. I also had a name bracelet made by Never Lost wristbands (http://www.neverlostwristbands.com) with all pertinent contact information as my mom had left her home on several occasions. Something else I did which really helped.... I took away all of her shoes. Now she has to "think" before she leaves and really has not left her home since. And like you, I prepare drinks, food and clothes both at night and before I leave for work in the morning.

I do not know in which state you reside, but in Maryland, the Dept. of Aging has volunteers who both visit and/or provide telephone check-ins, support, etc. They match like-minded people with your parents and more often than not, end up being angels in disguise. The Dept. even has a shuttle service to pick up your parents at home and return them when they are ready after sharing activities at the Center. They are even fed there.

My parents had Lifeline with a local service provider, then AmericaConnect. If you can get Monitronics, complete with a home security & fire alert system, I recommend them. They are the FASTEST by far in call responding to any problem signal sent. If I forget to disarm when I head out the door, for example, they text me and call within a minute. Check response times of your options. AmericaConnect takes quite long - consistently.

Meals on Wheels is a good venue. They will deliver the food and also check to be sure the person is ok. Life Alert works well too. They have an automatic button if the person falls it goes off automatically. We also have a security camera installed. It is a Q-see system and it is great. We can monitor from our smart phones and also computers all the time. We put them in rooms where he spends the most time and also one for the doorway in case he tries to wander out. They are not expensive and as a working person these are very helpful and give me peace of mind. I can watch any time of the day or night to make sure he is ok. Of course my dad only lives in an apartment with us on the second floor so he doesn't have much room to wander around and the 4 cameras work well for us. You can also get a system with 8 cameras that you can put in every area. Good Luck and give it a try. Costco or Sams