While clearing out her mother’s cupboards after moving her into a seniors’ home, Elaine Burt found a large peanut jar filled with prescription drugs.
“When my mom was sick, she was forgetting to take her medication, but she didn’t want to tell anyone,” says Burt to explain the secret stash of blood thinners and other strong medications. “Rather than take too many pills at once, she was putting the ones she had forgotten in the jar.”
Like many adults with elderly parents, Burt constantly worried about her mother’s safety and her ability to live at home on her own.
“You want your parents to be independent, but you can’t be there 24 hours a day,” says Burt. So in 2005, she founded Smart Independent Living, a Stittsville-based company specializing in an innovative personal alarm system and wireless safety devices for seniors.
Elaine Burt, owner of Smart Independent Living Inc., sells products to help seniors remain independent at home,
“We sell products that help keep people living at home,” says Burt, who worked for many years selling residential alarms before launching Smart Link, a programmable personal alarm that provides 24-hour monitoring for medical emergencies in the home. “They’re for people who are well enough to live at home, but are having safety issues.”
With Smart Link, if someone falls or needs help, they simply press a button on their personal pendant and a message is automatically sent to the help centre. Unlike other security systems that call to find out what you need, Smart Link offers two-way communication, allowing users to speak directly to a staff member within seconds. A family contact, caregiver or emergency service will then be called to the home if needed.
Forgetting to take medication or not taking the proper dose can be dangerous for seniors living on their own.
“It’s like a person is standing in the room with you,” says Burt of the clear, two-way voice feature. “It makes sure you’re never alone.”
Smart Link is an integrated system that doesn’t require any special wiring to install and is easy to program, she says. The system costs $39.95 a month to rent.
Equally unobtrusive and easy to install is the wireless MedReady Automated Medication Dispenser, a locked carousel that holds up to 28 individual doses and alerts the patient with an alarm or flashing light when it is time to take their pills. If a dose is missed, a caregiver or family member will be alerted and can contact the senior through the two-way communication feature. The dispenser sells for $195.
About the size of a TV remote. the Cookstop motion detect will turn off the power of the stove or oven if you leave the kitchen for longer than five minutes.
The CookStop is another nifty gadget that attaches to your stove to prevent kitchen fires. It includes a wireless motion detector that’s about the size of a TV remote that sits on top of the stove or counter. If you turn on a burner and leave the kitchen for longer than five minutes, power to the stove will be shut off.
“It’s something that can save a lot of lives,” says Burt, who sells the CookStop for $495.
For more information or to order products, contact Smart Independent Living at 613-523-1717 or visit mysmartlink.ca.
