Today's Segments:
Transcript - Adaptive Technology:
"Help! I've fallen and I can't get up." Is this your only idea of how to use tech to prolong independence? From letting kids with cerebral palsy dress like their classmates, or keeping your dad playing cards long into his '90s, assistive technology plays a role in independence. Today is Assistive Technology Awareness Day. We get a tour of North Dakota Assistive, a lending library of assistive tech with Executive Director Mike Chaussee.
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Ashley Thornberg
It's set up like an Ikea. You walk in, it looks like a normal house. Hello, very open concept here.
There's no walls. In the bedroom, I got a taste of assistance for anyone who might be hard of hearing. Mike handed me a little puck, like one of those buzzers that you get when you go to busy restaurants and they tell you it'll be 45 minutes before your table's ready.
This one is for the door, but it could also be for smoke alarms.
Doorbell ringing. Doorbell ringing.
Ashley Thornberg
Yeah. So this is under my pillow and I can definitely feel, oh, it just got sharper and louder and longer.
Mike Chaussee
Because you haven't done anything yet about it…You haven't shut off the device. So it will keep getting louder and louder and shake harder and harder until you do something.
It wakes me up. Yeah.
Ashley Thornberg
Okay. And let me just tell you, I could feel that vibration under the pillow. It was substantial.
Craig Blumenshine
Sometimes older people just don't need to be in a nursing home. This is something our family has dealt with recently. And maybe don't even need a home caregiver, but just need a little help.
Ashley Thornberg
Yeah. And a really interesting example of that was in the kitchen where, and I don't know what this says about me, I immediately reached for the knives. I found one that had a nice thick handle and then I noticed there was a little curve in the blade.
Mike Chaussee
My dad had multiple sclerosis and he was having a hard time eating and especially cutting his meat. Seriously, he ended up eating McDonald's over and over and over again. Well, he could grab the burger, he could put it in his mouth, he could grab the fries, he could put it in his mouth, but cutting a steak, forget about it.
Cutting chicken breast.
Ashley Thornberg
Sure.
Mike Chaussee
Forget about it. Asparagus. That stuff was hard.
Ashley Thornberg
Exactly. So hard to cut asparagus.
Mike Chaussee
So I got him some adaptive silverware. I got the fork, spoon, and knife. But the knife is super cool because it's got this- It's kind of heavy.
That's heavy. And so the heavy piece is designed for people with tremors. Put this one in your other hand, that one's light.
So you don't have to have heavy. You can still have a large handle, some heavy, some not. But the blade is, it's called a rocker knife and so it's curved.
And I watched my dad cut steak just by using that rocker motion.
Ashley Thornberg
So I rock back and forth. It's not a sawing action. It's the natural dexterity of the wrist.
Mike Chaussee
Exactly. And it worked. You'd think there's all these gimmicks out there in the world, but I was like, you should try this.
And I was like, boom, it worked. Yeah, super low tech.
Ashley Thornberg
He also showed me a metal arch that goes next to a chair and anyone who might have trouble getting out of a chair, you can grab that for support instead of someone needing to get you a walker or having that person lift you in and out of a wheelchair.
Craig Blumenshine
There are many people, Ashley, including our family who went through this with our parents. It gets a little more difficult for them to walk. You're worried about a fall.
So there are devices available that can help, but it's a lot of work.
Ashley Thornberg
It is. The physical demands of being a caregiver are pretty substantial.
Mike Chaussee
It's one of the biggest stresses and probably not talked about enough. And as we grow in our intensity of the workforce shortage, more and more is going to fall on unpaid and family caregivers to do the job.
Ashley Thornberg
Who are disproportionately women.
Mike Chaussee
And again, I think aging themselves. We have a lot of 70 plus year old people coming in here caring for their 90 and 100 year old parents. We've seen an increase, I would say over the last year and a half of caregivers who are incredibly stressed out.
It's a really tough situation and caregivers are really looking for anything and everything that can help them do their jobs in those situations. So their loved ones aren't in nursing homes before they need to be.
Ashley Thornberg
And I'll admit, I was only thinking of this assistive technology library for people using the tech in the sense of, okay, I have tremors. I need a different knife. But caregivers are using it too.
Here's one that falls under the category they call a wandering device.
Mike Chaussee
It's called a simple alarm. And it basically just uses magnets and you would stick one magnet on the door frame and one on the door. And if I turn this on and the magnets would separate.
(alarm noise)
So this lets the caretaker know that somebody with dementia has walked out.
Mike Chaussee
Yep. They've left the bedroom. They've gone out the front door.
They've opened the fridge so you can monitor activity. And so you can...
Ashley Thornberg
Within a certain range though. I can't take this home.
Mike Chaussee
But this is a $65, $75 device for the starter kit. So you can start to see how that might be helpful before I might invest in something a little bit more advanced.
Craig Blumenshine
More advanced often means more money, but they do have Alexa and Google Home devices you can try. That's why they want people to try items before they buy. Sometimes you can get an item at Target or Walmart and they also have some money available too for anyone on a limited budget.
That's a major concern. Just like mental health, you know Ashley, people need to care for their mental health, especially as they age. In my family, for my mother after my father died, she had many, many social outlets still at her disposal.
The Red Hat Society. She had Bunko Club. She had Pinochle Club.
She had social groups and she was in a senior neighborhood. Many of her friends from her entire life all of a sudden now lived within a block or two of each other.
Ashley Thornberg
Yeah, that mental health component of aging, it really is important. And I was surprised to learn that one of the more popular items was, get this, large size playing cards. So Mike mentioned one gentleman came in from the senior center, tried out a whole bunch of items, and ultimately he left with the cards because what he wanted was to be active and social in his new home.
Craig Blumenshine
Today is Assistive Technology Awareness Day and we're getting a tour from Mike Chaussee, the Executive Director of North Dakota Assistive. You can walk through and try out different high and low tech devices. They have offices in Bismarck and Fargo.
Ashley Thornberg
And we've been mostly focusing on age here and specifically the elderly. But Craig, did this ever happen to you? Did you ever not fit in?
Craig Blumenshine
I think all kids experience a moment in their lives or while they're growing up of, do I fit in with my group or what do I need to fit into my group or can I physically do things that would allow me to fit in with my group?
Ashley Thornberg
Well, right. As if fitting in isn't hard enough already. And kids, they don't understand how hurtful one little taunt can be.
Mike showed me some shoes that look a little like those old school Converse that have laces and everything. That could be something that's very difficult for a kid with cerebral palsy. So it had the secret zipper too.
The kid didn't actually need to tie the shoes. And to complete the look.
Mike Chaussee
Tommy Hilfiger branded shirt, right? It has buttons down the front, like every other kind of button down shirt, but it's fastened with magnets. So you don't have to have the dexterity to button a shirt to look like you're wearing a button down shirt.
Ashley Thornberg
To look like the kids.
Craig Blumenshine
Yeah. Anything that can spare a child from teasing.
Ashley Thornberg
Yeah. Kids can be really sensitive. And, you know, that's not even exclusive to kids.
Mike showed me some animatronic pets whose appeal covers a pretty large age span.
Ashley Thornberg
Oh, hi, puppy.
OK, I immediately started petting this dog, even though I know it's not real.
Mike Chaussee
Because that's what you're going to do.
Ashley Thornberg
Who is this for?
Mike Chaussee
So these I'm holding a cat here. I'm going to set the cat down with you, too. OK, so these are companion pets.
And I have to tell you, honestly, that when we first got the cat, we had the cat first as just an item to show people that I made fun of it. This cat is purring. So I made fun of it.
I thought it was weird, but it'll open and close its eyes. You can hear it meowing. If you start petting it, it'll roll on its back.
It'll lift its paw. It does all these things. But so they're they're cute, they're fun, they get they get a lot of attention, but they're really we're discovering that they're very effective to help people with isolation.
There goes the cat.
Ashley Thornberg
It rolled right over. And now, unlike a real cat, you can pet its belly.
Mike Chaussee
So it acts as a companion for people who can't have real pets. Maybe they can't care for the pet. Maybe there are rules and regulations where they live that won't allow them to have a pet.
I mean, you name it, there are all sorts of reasons. So so these kind of fill that void. And we have somebody who who works with us quite a bit, and she has started using these companion pets more and more for for her clients that are dealing with dementia.
And she has raved about how the clients are doing and how their moods have changed. And then she sent us a picture of one gentleman who rides around in his wheelchair with a cat in his lap throughout the day. And when he's petting the cat, his emotions are better and he's calmer and all these.
And so it just again, I've been shocked, pleasantly surprised, I should say, at how effective they've been in the right space. Wow. Yeah.
Ashley Thornberg
Hi, Kitty. Meow meow.
Mike Chaussee
I think the dog's getting jealous that you're sitting with a cat. I think one of my favorite days in the last year is we had a we had a table set up at the high school in Fort Yates and the kids were released by by class to come down and visit us at our at well, not us. It was a whole gym full of people.
But by the third class that was released, you could hear the people when they were the kids, when they came into the gym, whisper and ask each other, where's the cat? Where's that cat? And so they would come in the door and then we'd have all these people at our table just, you know, looking at the cat.
So, yeah, but certainly. And and I will tell you this, like. We have 10 kids at the table, right, kind of looking at it and laughing and giggling and nine of them, it was a toy and they were on to the next thing.
But for one of them, they like and it happened more than once when we were there. They would just hover later and and ask questions and you could just see how having something like this would change their. Self, I don't know how else to say it, but yeah, it would create a safe space, a safe space for them, almost all this stuff.
For some people, it can be a toy. It can be a cool little gadget, but for other people, it's incredibly meaningful.
Craig Blumenshine
That's Mike Chaussee, executive director of North Dakota Assistive. Today is Assistive Technology Awareness Day.
Ashley Thornberg
These kids were opening up to those fake cats and dogs. And then there's an interesting option for kids who are struggling with words when they need to get their needs met.
I am tired, happy, excited, sad, bored.
Craig Blumenshine
Okay. Sunglasses off here, I guess, eye gaze?
Ashley Thornberg
I know. I really can't believe it. The technology, very advanced.
Mike and I eventually go on to start talking about video games. And this is easy to write off as not necessary. Am I right?
You need clothes, you need to eat, you need video games? Well, listen to this. He told me about a Bismarck man who had a diving accident, lost his arms and legs.
First, they set him up with a smart thermometer. The number one thing he asked for was to be able to control the temperature of his own apartment without having to call for someone. But then he asked for this.
Mike Chaussee
I want to be able to play Madden with my sister. And he had a diving accident. And so he was like 17 or 18 when he had this accident, quadriplegic.
And he said that this is my relationship with my sister. What we know is Madden. This is how we communicate.
And this was our play. And I haven't been able to play Madden since this accident. And that's what I want to be able to do.
Video games is socialization for a generation or two now of people. And it was not a toy for him. It was a relationship builder.
Craig Blumenshine
Wow. Again, it's the social element of health.
Ashley Thornberg
It's part of what drew Mike to his work.
Mike Chaussee
I believe our world, especially our country and our health care system. We are amazing at keeping people alive. We go to the nth degree and all costs, right?
We're not as good at helping people live. We'll save them. And then what?
And so a lot of the things here, I kind of like to think of, well, this is some of the stuff that helped you kind of get along once you are home and trying to survive.
Ashley Thornberg
And of all the devices in the North Dakota Assistive Library, Mike's favorite was a little robot that looked kind of like a lamp, but with some personality. Here he is interacting with ElliQ.
Mike Chaussee
ElliQ, I've been very stressed. Can you help me with my stress today?
ElliQ
I have quite a few exercises to help you unwind, de-stress or even improve your focus. Take a look at the options on my screen. What are you in the mood for?
Mike Chaussee
Joy.
ElliQ
The mindfulness sessions range in length from three to 20 minutes. How long would you like the practice to be?
Mike Chaussee
Short today.
ElliQ
You got it. Here's a three minute session called Breathing Away Stress. Now let's turn our attention to our mindfulness instructor, Tracy, to guide us from here.
Welcome to this meditation session designed to help when you feel stressed, upset, worried or anxious. In this practice, the trick is simple. If you want to calm down, stop trying to calm down.
Just observe your body and mind as they are, with awareness and with kindness. Find yourself a comfortable, quiet place where you can sit or lie down. Let your body rest.
You may close your eyes. Take a few deeper breaths. Now let your breath be natural.
Now expand the attention to sensations in your whole body.
Ashley Thornberg
Yeah, so this just goes on for a couple of minutes and just a very grounding exercise. Essentially, that's a really common anxiety technique is even just to say, feel your body. Notice the sounds around you.
It puts you into the present moment.
Mike Chaussee
And the cool thing about ElliQ is that I didn't ask her to do a mindfulness exercise. I just told her I was stressed. And so she kind of created the solution for me.
I have to be careful, right? She kind of thinks and she engages me. And so, yeah.
So my favorite ElliQ moment was with weather. So she is trained to kind of greet me at the door in the mornings. And so I'm the first one here most days.
And I came in and she was, good morning, Mike. Did you know there was a weather alert in your area? And I was like, yeah, you know, that's fine.
But the next thing was the thing that kind of just triggered how powerful she can be to me. She followed up that with, it could be dangerous. Would you like me to communicate with one of your contacts?
And so she asked me if I would like to have her contact somebody for me. And so that was just this moment of like, oh my gosh, for safety and kind of, you know, having a little friend there kind of looking out for you. For her to trigger that question was just kind of a big moment for the power of what, you know, that type of device can be, I think.
Ashley Thornberg
Thank you so much for your time today.
Mike Chaussee
Thanks for coming. It was a blast. Appreciate it.