Learning from recent 97-year-old twins' deaths from falling. What if smart homes could have saved them?
Reflect on a story of 97-year-old twins who both died after tragically falling in freezing weather. Could we build the next smart home?
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Aspiring Product Manager and Film Producer exploring the intersection of culture, technology, and the visual arts in the film and music industries. Developing my product development skills at Stem Disintermedia and previously Microsoft and Autodesk. Interested in design thinking, music and film industry, and improving people's lives through visual technology like VR/AR. Cofounder of The Queen's Speech, a VR professional development app that placed 1st at Stanford's TreeHacks 2016 hackathon.
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Reflect on a story of 97-year-old twins who both died after tragically falling in freezing weather. Could we build the next smart home?
Kate Rushton Khuyen Bui Gia Rodney Lobo
Continuing this conversation in a new comment-chain!
Khuyen Bui Gia , to your point about 2-generational vs. 3-generational families impact on older adult falling rates, I don't know what the stats are but that's such a great point to bring up and to keep in mind for the design of such a smart home. Its users / notifiers could be both older adults and their families, helping them keep in touch as much as possible.
I took an introductory gerontology class and it was really interesting learning about how different racial communities access healthcare resources differently or even learn about them all because of the way they live. There's also a difference in what role these older adults their children to have in their later lives.
Asians and Asian Americans expect their children and/or grandchildren to care for them as they grow older. They also tend to avoid visiting hospitals as much as possible since needing medical care is seen as a weakness in that culture. This can be dangerous for older adults who refuse to voluntarily alert their doctor(s) of their troubles walking or other health symptoms. Hispanic communities on the other hand may not access healthcare information because of language barriers--medical information not being dispersed to communities in Spanish--and having such large families with many children to take care. A busy household makes it more difficult for aging Hispanic older adults to take time away from their family responsibilities to get medical attention when they need it. This is just a generalized trend that gerontologists have perceived. What has been said however is that Hispanic families tend to live in clusters of neighborhoods with similar demographics, making everyday life easier than maybe Asian Americans who don't live in concentrated Asian neighborhoods as they age. One has the advantage of having a community support group and common markets and stores that all share similar culture. I have a few things to say about all of these:
Laura commented on Learning from recent 97-year-old twins' deaths from falling. What if smart homes could have saved them?