How Can We Decrease Stress on Caregivers?
Silver Bay is Site for a Pilot Project Benefitting Patients and Caregivers Alike
The impending closures of Silver Bay’s clinic and DMV, alongside reduced county social services, rightly draw concern for patients facing an extra 30-mile drive for care. Skipping appointments will inevitably hurt patients. Focusing only on patients misses another critical stressor: the burden on their families and caregivers.
As residents age, a quick three-mile trip across town is manageable, but 30 miles on the highway can require calling children, neighbors, or fellow parishioners for help. In my research across the region, I’ve met nearly 70-year-old daughters caring for parents in their 90s. When rural healthcare clinics and other resources disappear, pressure on caregivers multiplies.
When I was a kid, I was primary caretaker for my great-grandparents. I stewed their prunes in the morning. I cleaned out the old coffee grounds and put the fresh grounds into the percolator. And, I put their medicines into the daily pillboxes, putting different pills into each of four boxes for every day. One box was filled with pills to be taken at waking, one with pills taken with breakfast, one with pills taken with lunch, one with pills taken with dinner.
It scared me spitless every day, because I was always worried what would happen if I mixed them up. What if I gave the medicine at the wrong time of day? What if I skipped a day by accident? I was sixteen, and I was worried that by helping my grandparents, I could have hurt them.
A new study by the University of Minnesota Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation is hoping to explore a new way to provide medication and chat with a healthcare provider for residents in Silver Bay and surrounding communities.
The project gives residents of Silver Bay a small device, about the size of a large bagel toaster, called the Ōmcare Home Health Hub® that might take these stressors away. The Hub helps residents (and their families) by offering automated medication scheduling and dispensing. The Ōmcare Hub dispenses a little packet holding the medication you need to take at 8, at 12, at 6 – whatever time of day you need it. It also includes a screen for video calls to family and friends, 24/7 phone access to pharmacy staff, and once-a-month pharmacy check-ins. The goal is to demonstrate that older adults in rural communities can access consistent, reliable pharmacy and care services regardless of their distance from a physical pharmacy.
Lisa Lavin, CEO of Ōmcare, notes that Silver Bay is ideal for testing whether in-home technology and home pharmacy services can help rural residents age in place.
While the study targets patient health, as a former caregiver, I know its value: I would have wanted this technology for my great-grandparents. It would have removed a daily chore and relieved the constant fear of a dangerous mistake. To learn more or participate in this University project, visit redcap.link/ruralhealth.
David Beard
Professor of Rhetoric,
Department of English,
Linguistics, and Writing Studies,
University of Minnesota — Duluth
