Denton County Living Well Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 40

Social Connectedness a Critical
Priority for Caregivers By Jamie van den Bergh

A

merica is aging and it is
affecting more
than just the
people doing
it. Thanks to advances in
healthcare and technology, the millions of Boomers who are reaching age
65 are living longer. This
wonderful reality also
comes with a new and
unique set of challenges,
including those now being
faced by a rapidly-growing population of family
caregivers.
According to a 2012
AARP study, as many as
42 million Americans take
care of a family member
at any given time. For
many, the word ‘caregiving’ brings
to mind critical duties that range from
managing finances and shopping for
groceries to providing medical support and assistance to family members
who are seniors.
The good news is there is a variety of
technologies designed to help caregivers meet these unique needs. However, one area, social connectedness,
has until now been mostly put on the
technological backburner.
The importance of
staying connected
As people age and their health deteriorates, they often experience negative feelings, such as loneliness and
isolation. These emotional states are
a serious matter for seniors and have
been shown to negatively affect physi-

ClarityLife not only brings
seniors into their family’s
social world in real-time
by allowing them to access
photos, videos, text messages and email directly
on their home phone via
an eight-inch tablet display on Ensemble – one of
Clarity’s amplified home
phone options – but it also
keeps family members and
caregivers abreast of the
senior’s daily activities
through medication reminders and appointment
notifications.

cal health.
Clarity, a division of Plantronics,
has launched an innovative new
senior-to-caregiver
communications platform called ClarityLife.
Primarily for older seniors living
alone, this integrated lifestyle system is specifically designed to target those health risk factors and
strengthen both physical and social
well-being.
ClarifyLife promotes
family togetherness
Most under 65 are used to staying
connected through social media and
smart phones, but older seniors often
miss out on real-time family updates,
such as news and photos from their
grandchildren’s’ baseball games, because they are simply outside of their
families’ social networks.

For the caregivers, ClarityLife provides peace of
mind by knowing the senior is okay and knowing that their loved one
is staying connected during the
important moments in life. For the
senior user, the technology keeps
them in the loop with their families
and the larger world despite their
physical absence.
Millions rely on Clarity to communicate at home, at work and throughout their lives. With innovations like
ClarityLife, Clarity is transforming the
home phone and existing communication devices, such as tablets and cell
phones, into life-changing solutions for
those who are confronting the realities
of aging. By engineering evermore innovative and advanced devices and
services, we in the industry hope to
provide greater options to help people
maintain fully independent, active,
and engaged lifestyles – no matter
what their age.

Jamie van den Bergh is president of Clarity, a Division of Plantronics Inc. (NYSE:PLT)
and a leading supplier of amplified telephones,