> > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5443317 > > Your Health > Home for Seniors Trades Privacy for Security > by Joseph Shapiro > > > Morning Edition, June 1, 2006 · Last winter, Lydia Lundberg and her > husband, Bill Reed, flew from the assisted-living facility they own > in Oregon and came to Washington, D.C. for the White House > Conference on Aging. > > In a busy exhibition hall, they opened up their oversized laptop > computer and showed off the technology they had been working on for > the past five years. It allows them to track the several dozen > residents who live at Oatfield Estates. > > Residents wear badges that signal to the dozens of infrared and > radio-frequency sensors inside the facility and outside on the > grounds. That allows Lundberg and Reed -- and others -- to track > residents at the facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week. > > In the exhibit hall at the White House conference, Lundberg pulled > up the tracking information on a resident named Ray Croft. With her > computer, three time zones away and on the opposite side of the > country, Lundberg was able to check on Croft’s location and his > activity -- at that exact moment. > > "I can go to a live view," Lundberg said, "and it shows that he's > in bed." > > The computer doesn’t show live pictures of Croft; the facility does > not use video cameras. But a device hooked to Croft's bed sends > data readings to the computer. > > "The icon shows he's snoozing away, and he has been in his room for > 12 hours," Lundberg reported. > > A graph popped up on Lundberg's laptop, with a blue line going up > and down. > > "Basically this is his breath, what you're looking at," said > Lundberg. The graph fluctuates with each breath Croft takes, so > Lundberg could even tell when he was breathing out and when he was > breathing in. > > Oatfield Estates > > On a recent morning in Milwaukie, Ore., a suburb of Portland, > Lundberg visits Croft at Rainier House, the group house where he > lives. Croft zips outside in the motorized wheelchair he has used > since his left leg was amputated after complications from diabetes. > > As Croft fires up his pipe, a worried look crosses Lundberg's face. > > "Where's your badge?" she asks. "They forgot to put it on you today?" > > "Yes, they did," Croft says. "And that's a big no-no." > > Croft isn’t wearing something that's almost always clipped to his > shirt: a black badge. It's the small, triangular pendant that > communicates with the sensors so that the monitoring system can > record where he is and where he's been. It even notes when he's > eating, when he's in the bathroom, even who he is hanging out with. > > On a chilly morning, Croft is wearing just his white T-shirt. > > Within moments, aide Ruth Yaws bounds down the stairs, holding > Croft's long-sleeve shirt and his badge. > > "What're you doing out here without your shirt on?" Yaws gently > scolds Croft. > > He says he wanted to go out to smoke but didn't want to bother the > aides who were finishing with serving breakfast. > > The young aide carefully helps Croft put on the heavier shirt and > attaches the badge. > > Some might think all this monitoring is a little creepy, so it's > worth pointing out that Oatfield Estates is a very nice assisted- > living facility. > > It's a place where Croft has just eaten his daily breakfast in bed: > pancakes the way he likes them. And his group house, on top of a > hill, offers a stunning panorama. Off in the distance, there's snow- > capped Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens. > > Maybe Oatfield Estates is nice because the owners, Lundberg and > Reed, built a place where they would want to live. They call it a > "summer camp for old people." > > But Lundberg says the thing that really makes this place work is > the monitoring technology. > > "People don't argue with data. They believe it," she explains. > "Because data doesn't have an agenda. Data's not trying to make > someone look better or worse." > > Lundberg can use the data to tell whether an aide takes too long to > respond when a resident pushes a call bell or whether a resident is > losing too much weight. > > Once an aide was accused of goofing off. But the data showed he was > the staffer who spent the most time with residents. > > Most of all, co-owner Bill Reed says the data give residents a > freedom that they wouldn't have in other long-term care facilities. > > "They would probably be in locked facilities," says Reed. "They > would be the ones who'd be at the doors trying to get out or > escaping." > > As Reed says this, he's watching a group of residents plant a > garden. About two-thirds of the people living here have some > dementia or Alzheimer's. At Oatfield Estates, they live in the same > group homes -- on the same floor -- as everyone else. They're free > to roam, inside and out. > > Reed says because people are monitored at this assisted facility, > there's no need to build fences here. > > "These are big, strong, fairly full-of-energy people," Reed says. > "So they'd try to escape away from the facilities. So you'd build > fences for them. Then they'd be hard to contend. So you'd give them > drugs to slow down their anxiety or their anger." > > Melissa Richmond was hired as the landscaper at this facility. But > part of her job -- and the part she enjoys most -- is to get the > residents to help her with the gardening. Some were farmers before > coming here. Others, like Dorothy Kimmel, had their own gardens. > > "Dorothy, do you think it's too early to plant tomatoes?" Richmond > asks. > > "Well, I can't even think of what month it is," Kimmel replies. > > Another resident, an elderly man with a shovel, digs holes in the > ground. Then Kimmel -- in a pink sweater -- takes the young plants > out of small plastic pots. She pulls the bottom leaves off each > plant, as Richmond showed her, then leans down and places each > plant in a newly dug hole. > > Caregiving from Far Away > > A few days later, hundreds of miles away in an office cubicle in > Tucson, Ariz., Kimmel's daughter, Marcia Riedel, sits at her > computer at the end of her work day. > > She types in her user ID and password, and with just a few clicks > of her computer, she reads reports about what her mother does each > day. > > "Planting tomatoes," Riedel reads. "If I can click on 'planting > tomatoes,' it gives me more information. It says they started at > 3:30 and ended at five o'clock. It was outside in the main garden. > And it tells who the employees there were." > > It's hard to be a caregiver from far away. Before, when Riedel > called her mother on the phone, Kimmel couldn't always remember > what she had done that day. Now Riedel phones and checks on the > computer a few times a week. > > "I can track her weight," Riedel explains. "I can tell how much > time she spent in bed. I can tell how restless she was. There's a > graph that keeps track of that." > > With the collected data, Riedel says she's more involved in her > mother's care now. > > The owners of Oatfield Estates say that's the point: to use data to > bring families closer together. > > It doesn't always work that way. > > Back at Oatfield Estates, a race is about to start. In the parking > lot, Ray Croft and his red motorized scooter is racing against > three-year-old Jacob Nickerson and his new red tricycle. > > At the agreed upon starting line, Jacob's mother, Kelly Nickerson, > gets behind the boy's tricycle to push. > > "OK. Grandpa Ray. You ready?" she asks. > > "Come on, Mom," says Jacob, ready to go. > > "Let's go," shouts Kelly Nickerson as she starts pushing and the > race begins. "Go Jake, go! Go Jake, go!" > > Jacob laughs and shouts, "I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going." > > Croft lets Jacob win these races. And although it's Jacob who > crosses the finish line first, the little boy insists that "Grandpa > Ray" won this time. > > Nickerson works at Oatfield Estates in the marketing department, > while she goes back to school to get her nursing degree. She and > her son live in one of the large group homes here. They eat meals > with the other residents. Of all the residents here, Croft is the > one that Jacob calls "Grandpa." > > After the race, Croft says his monitoring badge is a good thing. > > "The Big Brother thing doesn't bother me pretty much at all," he > says. "No, I think it helps. I mean, an intelligent person, halfway > intelligent, is going to appreciate the fact that people can be > monitored for their own good. And their own safety." > > But Croft has had problems with the monitoring devices, or at least > the way one of his daughters used the information. He's a diabetic, > and she saw his weight zoom up. > > He says his daughter started nagging him. > > new graf "She was really just giving me a hard time over her > expectations for my diet, for my weight, for my exercise. Just > about my whole life here", Croft says. > > He got fed up and revoked permission for her to see any data on him. > > That fight was a couple of years ago. Croft says he hasn't spoken > to his daughter since. He says they'd been estranged before. Still, > he misses her. Most of all, he thanks her for finding this place > for him. > > Croft says he couldn't live anywhere better, and that the > information that's gathered on him is -- for the most part -- used > to help him. > > Produced by NPR's Jane Greenhalgh
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