My mom lives in the mountains. Generally she does well but she lives alone in a big house. She's showing signs of lowered mobility and maybe a little cognitive decline. She loves gardening in her green house and going on small walks around the house.
I am terrified that one day she'll be bed ridden or fall on her walk or in her green house and she won't be able to get to her phone. She won't carry her cell anywhere.
I want to give her space and independence but I call her everyday to check-in which she hates. She doesn't want the call to be a healthcare check-in.
She refuses to have wearables like an apple watch or life alert and there's no way to sneak a camera in.
Any thoughts? Has anyone had a similar experience?
At 95, the ultimate happened. She called that morning and left message. Around lunch time She was getting out of her recliner, got her feet twisted up in the blanket she was using to keep warm, and fell, breaking her femur at the hip replacement site. Fortunately, she had the alert device on her that day and was able to activate it to get help. Otherwise, she would have laid there on the floor for who knows how long.
My mil (age 89) refuses to wear one. She lives by herself in a 2-story house on 40 acres, miles from town, with steep, not-to-current-code stairs. The stairs have things on them. There is only a half-bath downstairs. She has mobility problems and has fallen twice in the past, not knowing what happened.
Her two local daughters keep in contact with her. Still, though, she could fall and lie for hours if she wasn't conscious and didn't have her cell phone on her or couldn't use it. She has said she will have to be carried out of the house someday, and will not live elsewhere. (When she fell and hurt her shoulder a few years ago, she did go to live with one of her daughters for 7 weeks because she needed so much help.)