Link to Article in Walker Pilot Independent
Guest Column by Deb Taylor
Many of Minnesota’s 720,000 older adults, and the millions of family members and friends who love and care for them, are able to benefit from an Internet site with a high calling — keeping seniors healthy and safe.
It’s called CareNextion.org, a free and easy-to-use web tool developed by statewide nonprofit Senior Community Services. This secure and confidential internet resource mobilizes family, friends, and neighbors to help communicate and coordinate care for an older adult. The website helps seniors maximize their ability to live a vital and engaging life, while reducing the stress on caregivers.
Why did we develop CareNextion? Today, only 16 percent of older adults live with loved ones who can provide supportive care; so we see many older adults living independently at home well into their 80s, 90s and beyond, who need help with cooking, shopping, household chores and health needs. Consequently, we constantly hear from families, especially those with members dispersed across the country, who need help coordinating and managing care for an older loved one. And many of these devoted caregivers grow weary and overwhelmed by providing constant care.
As a secure and private care coordination tool, CareNextion strengthens informal support networks through centralized coordination of care, task assignment, journaling and communication with care team members. A typical care scenario involves adult children living far from a parent and trying to coordinate care for mom or dad from another city. With CareNextion, they can create and manage a care team of relatives, trusted neighbors, and friends who can help share caregiving responsibilities. Everyone who has the confidential password can log into CareNextion to find local resources, see upcoming appointments, and coordinate transportation and other needed tasks and household chores. Caregiving is better organized, thus reducing the need for constant phone calling and emailing multiple people.
Senior Community Services is continually updating CareNextion to keep it truly local for Minnesota families seeking senior resources that are available near their loved one.
CareNextion also is a tremendous boon for caregivers who support an older loved one, often at the expense of their own needs. Caregiver fatigue takes a toll. Day after day these devoted helpers make meals, handle household chores, schedule medical appointments, track care needs and report to other loved ones through seemingly endless phone calls, emails and texts. The CareNextion support network reduces the hours caregivers spend on assisting seniors with daily tasks, improves caregivers’ perceptions of their own health, and lessens the overall stress associated with caregiving.
CareNextion enables us to better care for and support our dear older loved ones. Through CareNextion, older adults have a care team that can rally around them, listen to their needs and walk with them through the challenges that come with aging.
Senior Community Services’ mission is all about community, and today’s caregivers can benefit in a big way from technology. CareNextion, and other technology tools, will be explained and demonstrated at Senior Community Services’ statewide Independent Living Technology Conference Oct. 14 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Minnetonka Community Center in Minnetonka. The latest advancements in assistive technology will be showcased. Information and registration for the Independent Living Technology Conference is available at www.seniorcommunity.org, click on Events.
The conference is one way we reimagine aging to make life better and more manageable for seniors and their families.
Deb Taylor is CEO of Senior Community Services (www.seniorcommunity.org) and its Reimagine Aging Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for older adults and helps seniors and caregivers maintain their independence through free or low-cost services.
