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Even if Americans can’t be there physically for older loved ones during the coronavirus outbreak, there are apps that can help family members be there electronically, Kurt “The CyberGuy” Knutsson said Saturday.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Knutsson said there’s “no reason you shouldn’t be doing this.”
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“Here’s the deal. They put our diapers on. They had our lunch ready. They sent us off to school. We got to the bus on time, and they were there for us,” he said. “It’s time now, at this moment when we really can’t physically be with our … older loved ones, we can be there electronically.”
Knutsson said one tool family members can utilize is a video calling service like Skype — which is free to download — or FaceTime on Apple products.
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“Use an app like FaceTime or Skype, and they will be able to see your face. They will be able to feel you that way. It isn’t the same thing as us being there, but gosh it matters,” he said.
Knutsson said another great app for recording how a loved one is doing in isolation is ConnectCare.
“They have made this now free to download. You can use it on Android or iOS. What this does is allow us to take advantage of putting down how our loved one is doing,” he said. “We might be able to say, ‘Hey, we had medication taken at this time,’ the temperature is this, [and] they are feeling this way…It keeps us all in touch.”
Knutsson advised younger family members to train older loved ones to put in information.
“It keeps it in the family, and it’s not shareable to other people outside of your own family,” he noted. “So, that’s what I really love about it.”
The third app he recommended is Life360, which has some of the same capabilities as the other apps but has “gone a step further.”
“You can set it to find out if your loved one who is older is leaving the house. Because sometimes we have stubborn older loved ones, and you don’t want to be that police for them, but it sure is helpful to understand if they are leaving their house frequently,” he said.
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Knutsson said Life360 also has a car crash detector for anyone using the app.
“We need to just tune in and listen to what our older loved ones are feeling,” he said. “We can’t cure this ourselves, but be there for one another in this powerful way where you just listen. Just listen.”
