Computer usage and compurity security issues in an "Old Fart's Home"

What is it about?

Computers are ubiquitous in our lives and have the potential to improve and simplify daily life in retirement communities. In my community, much of this potential is limited or rejected. Problems range from poor account security on the resident accounts for the system used as a community bulletin board to failures to simplify resident life by allowing activities such as event sign-up and meal ordering to be done online (in the interest of "fairness" to the diminishing non user population) to the failure to integrate available sensing platforms into the system that records resident signs of life.

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Why is it important?

As the world population ages, a continuum of care will be needed in different types of senior living facilities. While this an opportunity to enhance life challenges in senior living with technology, there are also corresponding privacy risks, both must be balanced. This said, one of the major drawbacks in the first author's community is a lack of technical expertise among the general staff of the community and the failure (or refusal) of the management to enlist the expertise of residents in addressing these problems. For example, residents in independent living units check in manually once a day by pressing a button on an emergency call unit in their bathroom. If a resident suffered a stroke or other injury that left them unable to call for help immediately after checking in, up to 30 hours could pass before anyone checked on them. By capturing other evidence of activity, the response period could be greatly decreased. While this might be considered invasive by some, many of us would trade the possibility of a rapid response for reduced privacy.

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