Assistive Technology for Seniors comes to Oahu

United States of America -- Free-Press-Release.com-- Feb 7, 2012 -- Originally opened on the Big Island in mid-2010, staff on Oahu were hired and trained in December and are now servicing local clients. “Kupuna Assistive Technology pretty much launched itself after I noticed almost nothing was available on the Big Island to help seniors who need a little assistance in order to remain living safely in their homes, yet who aren’t quite ready to be placed into a 24/7 supervised care facility” said company founder Robert Olin.

“Old fashioned pendant alarms have been available for many years, but these are reactive devices that do nothing to prevent problems. If you’ve had a stroke and you can’t press the button on your pendant alarm, you’re going to be up a creek without a paddle, and possibly become one of those sad news stories about the senior who spends two days on the floor of their bathroom until someone finds them."

" A large majority of emergency room visits and hospital admissions for seniors are due to medication mismanagement and falls. Our products are proactive and help prevent problems before they occur. It’s very unfortunate, but I noticed when working at Hilo Medical Center that many seniors end up in long-term care facilities because they are unable to cope with relatively mild medical conditions at home. They live alone, or their family is on another island or on the mainland, or their family lives with them or nearby, but they are gone for long stretches of time due to work or school. A typical client might have mild to moderate dementia or cognitive impairment and have trouble managing their medication, they may forget to eat or they don’t drink enough fluids, or they have congestive heart failure or diabetes and need to closely monitor their vital signs and blood glucose. For this type of client, we can remotely monitor their movements – or lack of movement, know if they’re taking their medication when they should, know if they’re not visiting the bathroom as often as they typically do because they’re dehydrated, and we can monitor their weight, blood glucose, blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels. If a client starts to cook something on the stove and then wanders off, our monitoring system will know that the stove is on, but that there’s no movement in the kitchen. Remotely, the monitoring center can disable the stove and then attempt to contact the client to see if there is a problem. If the monitoring center is unable to reach the client, they will attempt to call a neighbor, family member or EMS until they have verified the client is safe.”

“Now that we have refined our product line on the Big Island, the natural next step was to expand to Oahu and we will start service on Maui later this year” said Mr. Olin. “The typical senior obviously prefers to remain living in the comfort of their own home versus moving into a nursing home or even having to hire caregivers to come into their homes to provide care. Rather than spend many thousands of dollars each month to stay in a nursing home or to pay in-home caregivers, our typical client spends $50 to $300 per month for our services, so savings can be substantial.”

More information can be found at www.kuaste.com or by calling (800) 544-9876

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Kupuna Assistive Technology
Robert Olin
http://www.kuaste.com