Testimonial for myhomehelper from Andrew Wood, owner and director at Home instead

I have spent many hours looking at technology offerings in the healthcare market which will support care in the home for older generations. Often these products fail to get over the barriers of value-for-money costs, lack of perceived benefit, technically too complex, or lack key bits of important functionality.

In recent years there is one product and platform offering, myhomehelper, about which I have no reservation whatsoever and have introduced it, very successfully indeed, to a number of our homecare clients, where they are in the categories of either being fairly technophobic and/or living with dementia.

Particularly useful during the Covid pandemic, but hugely useful anyway, it simply connects families together, by video and sharing of photos, but also allows reminders and prompts to be set up remotely by caring family members, providing reassurance.

The product looks like one of the old digital photoframes but the first advantage is that there are no batteries to run out, or fiddly charging cables to plug in – it is always on! You will even be sent an email alert if the power is turned off.

Then the real beauty of it is that you, the family member, completely control the device remotely, through an internet browser, and can even see, at that moment, what is actually showing on the screen.

The key features, then, so relevant for family enjoyment and remote support, and those who need reminders, are that you can upload and share photos, set up diary reminders (appointments, birthdays etc.), set up regular reminders (taking medications on time, for example), and the default clock display shows periods of the day (like Morning/Afternoon etc.), as a reminder for those living with dementia.

In addition one really neat feature is that, from any online device, you can initiate a video call to the device and just ‘pop up’ on the screen, without your loved one needing to swipe anything on-screen to answer your call – so useful for those not comfortable with, or not able to operate, technology, and video-based conversations carry so much more meaning.

We have now strongly recommended this device and platform to a number of sons and daughters, where they are living a distance away from their parent or parents, and helped with installation and support.