I really don't think there is anything like that. If she is so sharp, then she is aware that she needs to use a walker. So she is not using it because she doesn't want to. What does her care plan say? If it says she needs to use a walker then the staff should be making sure she uses it. If she is in her room, it may be hard to use it. Bumping into things. Mom never used hersvin her room.
No, not everyone who needs a walker has dementia, that's true. But those elders who don't use a walker sitting right in front of them in a small apartment generally do not want to. They "don't need" to, they're "perfectly fine" w/o one. And yada yada. Just as my father insisted, who had no dementia, and broke his hip at 90 and never walked again until he died at 92. Or my mother who did have dementia but Showtimed like an Academy Award winning actress, fell 95x and still had "no need" for her walker right up until she went into a wheelchair fulltime.
The moral of the story is, if your mother is sharp and doesn't have dementia, then she doesn't want to use her walker sitting 5 feet away. So what good is a bell or a buzzer or a pendant or a Smart watch gonna do?? That's another thing my mother refused to wear.....her call pendant. It didn't match her outfit of the day. And she didn't need one, even after 95 falls 😑
She's in an assisted care retirement community in VA. She has her own apartment and is pretty sharp still. I think the chime or alarm would indeed remind her to move about with the walker at this point. But I hear what you all are saying, and thank you.
The only thing I can think of would be a smart watch because there are bluetooth distance trackers for devices. Seems like there would be a need for this. Not everyone who needs a walker has dementia.
If seeing the actual walker doesn't remind her, why do you think hearing an alert would make any difference? Does she have good hearing? When was the last time it was actually tested?
My Mom is 94, drives and is "still pretty sharp"... except she has pretty bad hearing loss and never remembers to put in her hearing aids, even after she's talking to us and she's asking "What?" and we're yelling answers to her. I've written all kinds of notes on her mirrors and talk to her about the importance of putting them in every day, to no avail. She's had over a year to adapt to the hearing aids. They're in her bathroom right where she can see them. She doesn't connect people yelling at her with her not putting her hearing aids in. People in age-related cognitive decline not only can't retain what currently exists in their memory but are actively losing it.
I have chased around many seemingly logical solutions for her and her (now deceased) older sister who had dementia for 12 years. Most of what I attempted either only worked for the briefest of times or didn't work at all. Memory loss and dementia are covert and you often don't realize how far along it is in your LO until something undisputable happens. Often elders cover up their deficits (a social worker called this Apparent Competency). Their decline is happening every day, and the older they get, the faster it happens, generally.
Your profile says your Mom is 92. Please don't invest in a Smart Watch. She won't be able to navigate it and it will just get stolen or lost. It would also make you her on-call tech helper.
I'm just trying to spare you from expending time and energy if there's a low chance this solution will work. Believe me, I'm all about solutions, but only if they have a high likelihood of working. Helping your Mom may go on for many more years if she's basically healthy, so one has to pace themselves for this marathon (my other living Aunt is 104).
I wish you and your Mom all the best. She's lucky to have you. Bless you for being willing!
In my personal experience with this, the LO won't even know what the alert would be for. We used to put a sign on the walker for my Aunt to read. Nope, didn't register. Having memory impairment and dementia means that person is not able to learn and retain new things. They can't make the mental connection between the alert and using the walker, or have awareness of their disability. I personally would not expend energy on this type of alert...it's not a viable solution.
We put a "motion detector" on my Aunt: it's an alarm that has one side that clips to the chair and the other to her clothes, connected by a magnet, so that when she started to get up out of her seat, the magnet would detach and the alarm would go off. We used that for years and she never knew why she was wearing it. She was a very healthy, mobile person with dementia until she started falling and breaking bones but it didn't stop her from always trying to stand up and walk. We had both a hired aid and family caregiver alternating to watch her and she still fell in her home. The last thing she did was climb out of bed at night (past our barriers) and fall and break he hip. She passed while at rehab while I was in the throes of trying to figure out where to house her since we couldn't stop her from getting up and out of bed and she didn't qualify for LTC but her fall risk was way too high.
A long-time participant on this forum, Leolonnie1, had a Mom in a facility who fell over 90 times. Eventually the person has a fall that finally immobilizes them. This is a hard truth but you will hear from many on this forum who have been there and done that.
Walking around without a walking aide, in this case a walker is *risk taking behaviour*.
Risk of falls goes way up when this happens.
(My LO has started walking here & there at home without the cane. Why, I asked? Shrug).
I think more supervision is the only thing. There are bed/chair alarms that beep when the person gets up. This would be to alert the caregivers though (as used in some NHs).
For an alarm to work for the elderly person they need to hear the noise, listen to it, stop moving, recognise the noise means something, think, remember it means to use the walker, go find the walker. When you break it all down, it's actually quite a complex task.
The moral of the story is, if your mother is sharp and doesn't have dementia, then she doesn't want to use her walker sitting 5 feet away. So what good is a bell or a buzzer or a pendant or a Smart watch gonna do?? That's another thing my mother refused to wear.....her call pendant. It didn't match her outfit of the day. And she didn't need one, even after 95 falls 😑
The only thing I can think of would be a smart watch because there are bluetooth distance trackers for devices. Seems like there would be a need for this. Not everyone who needs a walker has dementia.
My Mom is 94, drives and is "still pretty sharp"... except she has pretty bad hearing loss and never remembers to put in her hearing aids, even after she's talking to us and she's asking "What?" and we're yelling answers to her. I've written all kinds of notes on her mirrors and talk to her about the importance of putting them in every day, to no avail. She's had over a year to adapt to the hearing aids. They're in her bathroom right where she can see them. She doesn't connect people yelling at her with her not putting her hearing aids in. People in age-related cognitive decline not only can't retain what currently exists in their memory but are actively losing it.
I have chased around many seemingly logical solutions for her and her (now deceased) older sister who had dementia for 12 years. Most of what I attempted either only worked for the briefest of times or didn't work at all. Memory loss and dementia are covert and you often don't realize how far along it is in your LO until something undisputable happens. Often elders cover up their deficits (a social worker called this Apparent Competency). Their decline is happening every day, and the older they get, the faster it happens, generally.
Your profile says your Mom is 92. Please don't invest in a Smart Watch. She won't be able to navigate it and it will just get stolen or lost. It would also make you her on-call tech helper.
I'm just trying to spare you from expending time and energy if there's a low chance this solution will work. Believe me, I'm all about solutions, but only if they have a high likelihood of working. Helping your Mom may go on for many more years if she's basically healthy, so one has to pace themselves for this marathon (my other living Aunt is 104).
I wish you and your Mom all the best. She's lucky to have you. Bless you for being willing!
We put a "motion detector" on my Aunt: it's an alarm that has one side that clips to the chair and the other to her clothes, connected by a magnet, so that when she started to get up out of her seat, the magnet would detach and the alarm would go off. We used that for years and she never knew why she was wearing it. She was a very healthy, mobile person with dementia until she started falling and breaking bones but it didn't stop her from always trying to stand up and walk. We had both a hired aid and family caregiver alternating to watch her and she still fell in her home. The last thing she did was climb out of bed at night (past our barriers) and fall and break he hip. She passed while at rehab while I was in the throes of trying to figure out where to house her since we couldn't stop her from getting up and out of bed and she didn't qualify for LTC but her fall risk was way too high.
A long-time participant on this forum, Leolonnie1, had a Mom in a facility who fell over 90 times. Eventually the person has a fall that finally immobilizes them. This is a hard truth but you will hear from many on this forum who have been there and done that.
Risk of falls goes way up when this happens.
(My LO has started walking here & there at home without the cane. Why, I asked? Shrug).
I think more supervision is the only thing. There are bed/chair alarms that beep when the person gets up. This would be to alert the caregivers though (as used in some NHs).
For an alarm to work for the elderly person they need to hear the noise, listen to it, stop moving, recognise the noise means something, think, remember it means to use the walker, go find the walker. When you break it all down, it's actually quite a complex task.
Where does Mom currently live?