Home Monitoring for Dementia: Set It Up Before a Crisis

Full analysis

Teepa Snow argues that families should discuss and install remote monitoring systems for a relative living alone with dementia well before a heat emergency or other crisis forces the issue — ideally starting the conversation while the person still has enough capacity to agree. She describes two types of systems: audio-based motion sensors that detect movement through a space in roughly ten-second intervals, and video ("nanny cam") systems. The goal is to know whether someone is moving, eating, drinking, and using the bathroom without requiring daily in-person visits. During extreme heat, Snow says once-a-day check-ins are not sufficient and that failing to put a monitoring system in place when a person lacks the capacity for self-care amounts to neglect.