There seems to be two sides to the video monitoring coin. On one hand, we sometimes feel our privacy is invaded when there’s a camera recording our every move. On the other hand, that same video can offer a safety net we wouldn’t have without it. It’s a dilemma that is fought out in the public arena as well as in personal decisions about putting cameras in our homes to monitor our loved ones.  Making the decision to install cameras for video monitoring is definitely a judgment call that we should not take lightly.

How do we decide whether or not to utilize video monitoring of our loved ones? First, we need to weigh the privacy vs. safety issue. Can we place a camera where it will be least invasive of our loved one’s privacy while still giving us a way to evaluate their well-being? Will it be a help to that person to have a loving caregiver check on them? In what ways can remote video monitoring help the aging loved one? In what ways will it help the caregiver? Are those advantages worth giving up a little privacy?

Everyone is different and has different needs. My mother-in-law has mid-stage dementia and lives alone. Our goal is to allow her to live in her own home for as long as she is safe, but how do we determine that? A remote video monitoring system has been the answer for us.

We can see day in and day out how Grandma Doris manages her own daily activities, and that helps us know that although she is becoming more frail physically as well as mentally, she’s still able to manage just fine in her home in her familiar surroundings. We get a certain peace of mind by being able to see for ourselves that she’s okay. We feel that the senior monitoring system we use from www.tendertidingsseniors.com gives us the ability to make informed decisions about how we can best provide for Grandma Doris, and she doesn’t seem to mind knowing that we occasionally see her putter around her house, drink her coffee, and pet her cat.

While  remote video monitoring may not be the answer for all families who have aging loved ones, it has been a tremendous help for us. In this case, we made the right decision.