Video room monitor for nighttime use by aides

Rishonah

We have 24/7 aides right now including ones who are awake during the night. Mom doesn’t make a lot of noise when she gets up since the room has a good carpet and she does not call for assistance when going to the bathroom. 

I am looking for recommendations for a video monitor which the aides can use at night to see when she gets up without having to stay in the room or keep entering the room to check on her. 

towhee

You might want to look for an audible alarm. There are two kinds, pressure mats and motion detectors. I have seen the Smart Caregiver brand mentioned here before. Video monitors are okay, but no caregiver is going to glue their eyes to it every second, and that is all it would take.

harshedbuzz

A friend used a motion detecting mat on both sides of mom's bed which alerted her phone. This allowed her to get to mom without disturbing her. It also prevented late night wandering.

As the disease progresses, you might want to rethink the "good carpet". Incontinence has caused many to pull up bedroom (and sometimes entire homes of) carpet. 


HB

May flowers

I use a bed alarm and used to use floor mat alarm, mine doesn’t go to a phone but connects wirelessly to a small alarm box which chimes. The alarm box can be pretty far from the pad, in our case is it on a different floor of the house.

I like the bed alarm as it notifies me when he is restless, not just when his feet hit the floor. By the time his feet are touching the floor, I only have seconds to get to him before a fall. 

​fesk

I used a motion sensor from Smart Caregiver as an alarm. A baby video monitor was provided to the aide. There are a lot to choose from.

Jo C.

Hello Rishonah and a very warm welcome to you.  The input that has been given is really very good advice.

Video monitors are good in some circumstances, but they lack as a warning system.  From personal experience with multiple different LOs and different circumstances, the "awake" night time aides sometimes will doze off and fall asleep.  Sometimes for short periods of time, sometimes for much longer periods; sometimes this is unintentional.  Also, sometimes the aide may be reading or have their attention on something else and they do not see what is happening on the video cam; unfortunate, but it happens.

In such a case, a video monitor will not be able to alert the aide.  An alarm pad on the floor next to the bed will set of said alarm and be able to alert or wake up the aide.  If cost is not a factor, one could have both a video cam as well as the floor alarm pads.

You are being a very good advocate for your dear mother; she is blessed to have you by her side.   So hope that whatever method you choose will work well.

J.

mommyandme (m&m)

Our cameras do have alerts for movement and sound which I often use.  I can turn the sound up on my phone so I can hear the alarm go off and wake up.  The unfortunate thing about giving access to aids is they’d have access all the time even when they’re not on duty.  When my brother and I were doing long distance caregiving we gave access to her caregivers but not now that I’m her primary caregiver.  There’s got to be a simpler way, just a simple baby monitor? Not one that connects to the internet for full viewing.  But if you’re not providing her care then doesn’t really matter who sees if they’re all aids.  It takes a village after all.  I liked having it to view the aids and their care for her, which I still do when I’m on respite and so can my brother who lives in a different state.  

Let me know if you find the solution. 

jmlarue

I purchased the Eufy video cams from Amazon based upon the advice of an IT professional I know. The have superior clarity in low light/night vision, remote adjustment for field of view, and will detect motion to send a notification to the phone that your LO is on the move. They need a plug-in so I set them on a low dresser in the bedroom and a desk in the living room. One way to avoid giving access to aides on their personal devices would be to buy a cheap cell phone to be used exclusively in your home for monitoring the video cameras. Alternately, purchase and Alexa Show and use the Eufy Skill to view the cameras on that device. No aide should be given personal access to the monitoring application. These cameras have the ability to record video clips to be stored on an SD card so there is no need to pay for video storage in the Cloud.  Link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089KFG63T?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

mommyandme (m&m)

jmlarue,

An extra burner phone for use in the home…way good idea. Wish I would have thought of that way back when.  I’ll put that in my back pocket for later use. Thank you!