A modest proposal

[William Prothero]

Warren:
Just like taxicab companies hire and vet drivers, there are many referral organizations that manage caregivers. The referral agencies are like a taxi cab company, but I”m proposing something more like Uber. If I were to do this app (which I’m not), I would partner with one of the referral agencies. What’s lacking in the referral organizations is a stronger relationship between the actual caregiver, the senior, and the family of the senior, especially the primary person who is taking responsibility for the senior’s care. Perhaps the app might be a service subscribed to by existing referral agencies.

For example, my mother-in-law needs some assistance. My wife called a referral agency and spoke to a nice energetic, “can-do” young man who assured us that they could provide everything she needs. My mother-in-law needed a ride to an eye doctor. They sent out a nice woman who drove her around for 2.5 hours looking for the doctor’s office, which was 10minutes away from her house. My mother-in-law was livid. 

So the idea would be to try and improve the information someone get about the specific care-giver through social media and feedback from clients. Then when a caregiver is contacted, the client could look up ratings, issues, etc. Notes entered by the caregiver would be entered and available to all in the client’s approved list of viewers.

That’s the basic idea. Obviously it would get more refinement, but the goal would be to have more transparency and feedback on individual care-givers and better communication between the family and providers.

That’s it.
Bill

> On Sep 29, 2015, at 1:21 PM, Warren Samples <warren at warrensweb.us> wrote:
> 
> On 09/28/2015 03:23 PM, William Prothero wrote:
>> Folks:
>> I’m putting out what I think is a fantastic idea for an app. It’s much more than I’d be willing to take on, but in the US, I think it could be very big. But, then again, perhaps it exists already. I’d like to use such an app for my aging stepmother. I release the idea into the livecode-sphere.
>> 
>> Problem: Aging population and seniors needing services, and wanting to live in their home as long as possible. Getting help is hit and miss and the senior help organizations do not actually work very well or consistently. I have been pondering this because my mother-in-law is 200 miles away and needs help to be able to stay in her home. The kind of app I propose, as the population ages further, could be extremely useful.
>> 
>> Solution: Think Uber. Folks who want to offer services to seniors, like take them to a doctor’s appointment, go shopping, clean the house, provide company (you get the idea).. sign up to the site. Seniors or their “primary overseer” (POS: a family member, or some agent who takes responsibility for overseeing the senior’s well-being) request services the same as they would do for an Uber ride. The service provider leaves notes re their specific experience giving the service, on a password protected database available to the POS.  The POS can rate the service provider and comment on their service quality. There could be a public area, managed by the POS, where public information about the senior could be posted.
>> 
>> Challenges would be creating some kind of certification for the service provider. Seniors are particularly vulnerable to fraud and abuse, so providers would need some kind of strong oversight. Probably it would be best if there was a local office for each location where providers were interviewed, checked for criminal records, possibly trained, etc. Perhaps a partnership with an existing non-profit senior help center would work.
>> 
>> Another challenge is that seniors may, for awhile, not be able to use a mobile device. The POS would help in this regard.
>> 
>> Social media would be very important in helping seniors find and evaluate appropriate providers and share ideas for strategies for independent living and needed care.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Bill
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> William A. Prothero
>> http://es.earthednet.org/
>> 
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> 
> 
> Without knowing exactly how you envision this, it can be said that services such as this do exist in some form or another. See, for example, care.com
> 
> POS may not be the very best acronym...
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Warren
> 
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