Parkinson’s
Movement and mobility issues can lead to deadly falls. We can help.
THE CHALLENGE
More Than 1 Million People in the U.S. are Living With Parkinson’s Disease and Need Help with Independent Living
Parkinson’s disease, like Alzheimer’s, is a neurodegenerative disease that becomes progressively worse over time. Those with Parkinson’s experience atrophying and eventual death of nerve cells in the brain, specifically those producing dopamine, a crucial chemical and hormone for smooth muscle movement. This brain disease can lead to tremors, stiffness, and balance issues.
A classic Parkinson’s symptom known as bradykinesia, means slowing or impaired movements such as reduced arm swing and shuffling gait that also increases falls risk.
In addition, in the early stages of Parkinson’s, a person may act out their dreams – punching, kicking and even getting out of bed to walk or run. This is known as Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD), a condition where the brain’s “muscle paralysis” signal during REM sleep fails.
All of these symptoms put Parkinson’s adults at higher risk for falls, whether living in assisted living or at home. It can also impact the peace of mind and health of family caregivers and cause senior living staff to be hyper-vigilant in 24/7 care.
Parkinson’s is Most Noted for Its Movement (Motor) Related Symptoms, but Non-Motor Symptoms can be Even More Important
Examples of non-motor symptoms include:
- apathy
- depression
- constipation
- sleep behavior disorders
- loss of sense of smell and cognitive impairment
Progression through the stages of Parkinson’s requires senior living caregivers and family care partners to adjust their caregiving to align with the progression of the disease. In the initial phases, independent living is the goal and new, innovative technologies, like Theora Care™ provide senior living staff and family care partners with the situational awareness they need to enable their loved ones to maintain independence as long as possible.
THE THEORA CARE SOLUTION
How Theora Care Can Help in the Early Stage
Theora Care’s wearable, Theora Connect ™ , helps in the initial stages where your loved one is still able to live alone and extend independent living. Unlike some emergency alerts systems for seniors and basic GPS tracker watches, Theora Connect goes beyond simple location tracking and provides key condition information about not only where the loved one is, but also how they are doing. We call this situational awareness — location and condition information in context, so that you can understand and act when needed.
In the early stage of Parkinson’s people are and want to remain active and not “avoid stigma associated with their condition”. Wearing a life alert system for seniors, Parkinson’s bracelet or other emergency pendants is often undesirable and rejected. We have found that anyone enjoys wearing Theora Connect, because of its non-medical design, looking like a stylish wrist watch, not an obvious bracelet that signifies frailty.
How Theora Care Can Help in the Middle Stage
In the mid-stage, falls become more common due to slowness of movement and loss of balance. At this stage, the Theora Connect smart wearable and communication device is even more important. The new Smart Fall Detection™ provides caregivers with notification when a loved one has fallen and instant communications to understand their situation. The smartwatch has an SOS emergency button that allows the loved one to call their primary caregiver for any reason.
How Theora Care Can Help in the Late Stage
In the late-stages of Parkinson’s, Theora Care can be another set of eyes, performing as a virtual alert system to assist senior living staff and care partners and caregivers in the care of their loved one. Theora Connect can monitor activity, or lack of activity, with the Theora Connect step-counter feature.Behavioral changes can be seen more quickly, as the wellness data captured provides functionality beyond what a reactive personal emergency response system provides to keep care teams alerted to important changes.
Theora Care helps to improve health outcomes and quality of life in senior living, provide assistance and peace of mind to professional and family caregivers and uses the most advanced technology in situational awareness to maintain constant communication with a community resident or loved one at home.
BENEFITS TO PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S
Advanced technology from Theora Care offers people living with Parkinson’s and their caregivers the independence and dignity they deserve as they navigate a neurodegenerative disease.
Parkinson’s Adults
- More freedom, independence
- Ability to see health data related to mobility
- A tool to live life with No Fear
Family & Professional Caregivers
- More peace of mind a loved one is safe
- A virtual caregiving assistant who is “always on, always learning”
- Adopting a No Fear posture on a loved one’s mobility and freedom
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
Ready to Live with No Fear
Discover how Theora Care can help you or your loved ones achieve independence while staying safe and connected.
Frequently Asked Questions
My dad hates wearing jewelry, even watches, how can I get him to wear the Theora Connect watch?
Wearables are definitely a preference for many of us but maybe you can help your dad see that this is a “tool” for better quality of life. Without it, he may fall and no one will know or minutes or hours, he may not be able to make a call in a crisis situation and no one will know. Also, our Theora Care solution is using advanced technology that is simple and privacy protected but gives your dad the power of his health data and status on his wrist. And, surveys show men prefer watches to other types of digital health wearables and personal emergency response systems (PERS). If all else fails, tell him it will help you sleep at night and give you more peace of mind. In the end, it is his decision, but when it comes to caregiving, it is a partnership and you have a stake in this too.
My husband does not feel the need to have a wearable watch since we live together and he is concerned about privacy issues on his health data – what can I tell him to ease his mind?
Even though you live in the same house, you may need to be in your garden, out of earshot, go meet friends or get to the grocery store leaving him alone. This situation can be fearful for you as you are concerned he may fall or injure himself or just need you in an emergency. Having the peace of mind our technology brings helps both the person wearing the smartwatch but their loved one (family caregiver) as well.
My dad fell recently at his assisted living community, would wearing this watch help him prevent another fall and will the staff know how to use the information it can collect?
Yes – one of the most advantageous things about our Theora Care system is we can help predict and detect falls so we decrease the risk and increase the communication and data that helps possibly prevent future falls, While no technology nor person is perfect, it can help. And, we work closely with our senior living community partners to ensure all staff are trained on our products, apps and dashboard data to give them to tools to provide better quality care and vigilance and to help keep your dad safe.