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Call 866-WIN-ASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to crittercampaign.org. I saw something on the news, I'm sure that you did as well, that was rather disturbing. And it involved, well, there's actually several things this weekend that have been very uncomfortable for me and for us, I believe, as caregivers to see and to read about. And one of them is this thing in Michigan where this senior was being assaulted by a worker there and who has now been arrested.
And the other one was a situation in Florida where a young mother of a child with autism, nine years old, and it turns out she had killed her child. This is not the first time that sort of scenario has happened, and certainly in nursing homes, this is not the first time that this has happened as well. And I'm going to be having a gentleman on the show next weekend to talk about that even further with nursing homes. But I have to ask you as caregivers, do you worry about that? Are you concerned about what's going on when you can't see your loved one, when you can't engage with them because of this virus? Or if it wasn't for the virus, you can't be there 24-7, what's the point of them being in assisted living or nursing home if you have to be there 24-7 to monitor it, the situation and the circumstances? And then on the flip side, are you as a caregiver living in such isolation that dark thoughts are overtaking you? Today, I'd like to talk about that a little bit because this has been the heart and soul of what this show is all about.
It is called Hope for the Caregiver, and it involves inserting practical help, technology, anything we can do to help shore up those areas of a caregiver's life that is causing great distress and can lead to some tragic ends. So due to that, I've invited a friend of mine on the show. His name is Mark Gray, and Mark is down in Tampa, Florida. I met Mark a couple of years ago.
I was emceeing an event for AARP when it showcased a lot of people that were introducing technology and all types of different services and systems for family caregivers. And Mark stood out, and he has gone even further than that, and we've talked many times, and I've actually tried some of the things that he's been working on here in our home with Gracie and found them to be incredibly helpful. So, Mark, I want to welcome you to the show. How are you feeling today, Mark?
Hello, Peter. Thanks for asking, and thanks for having me on the show. I look forward to it. I'm doing just fine, Peter, and it's beginning of summer weather, and hopefully summer is the end of COVID-19 for Florida and everybody. We sure hope that we get a break here. Well, I believe that you will.
We had snow yesterday where I am in Montana, so we're a ways away from summer. You've seen these things in the news, and you are as troubled, if not more than I am, by watching it, partly because you have solutions for this. And this is why I wanted to have you on the show is so that you would be able to talk about this a little bit.
I've watched these things, and as I've seen it unfold, I thought we are not going to win this battle with conventional thinking and conventional strategies and conventional technology. We're going to have to be a little bit smarter about this, and that's where you come in. So before I go any further with this, I'd like for you just to take a few moments to share what your background is, why you got into this, what are you offering, and then let's talk about it and talk about the practical applications of this. Sure.
That's a lot. Well, thank you for the question. I spent most of my professional career, Peter, in security, both cybersecurity and physical security.
I did work for the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and some of the intelligence community. We were about a 500-person company, and I sold that business and was going to retire, semi-retire at least. But a few years ago, my mom fell and broke her ankle, and I was concerned, what if that happened again and there was nobody around? So I wanted to get her something for peace of mind to keep her safe, and so I would feel like a good son and know I was looking after my mom. So I got her one of the push-button, panic-button type devices, the best one out there, and sent it to her. I was excited to have her get it, and she said, son, I love you, but I'm never going to wear one of those things.
And so here I was. I'd been taking care of everybody else my whole career, and I couldn't take care of my mom. So I went on a search looking for what else was there besides the push-buttons, and I looked and looked and talked to other people about my same age, probably who had older mom or dad or brother or sister or somebody that might need help, and they said, Mark, I had the same problem. My mom said, or my dad wouldn't wear one either.
Mark, let me interject. Why wouldn't she wear it? This I fall and I can't get up kind of thing. Why wouldn't she wear it? Just the feeling that it makes you look like an older person or someone who's frail or fragile, and it would be embarrassing. And it's a big sign around your neck or your wrist that says, hey, I can't take care of myself, and look, we're all human. We all want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, and people just either forget or refuse to wear them, or you take it off to charge it and you forget to put it back on, or you get up in the middle of the night. Maybe you go to the restroom or get a drink of water and you think, well, I don't need it, just to go ten steps, and here you go.
That might be the moment you have a slip and fall or what have you. But that was it. She didn't want to be seen as wearing a badge around the neck that says, we're old. So what happened? So you looked around, you got the same – evidently, a lot of people were having the same kind of response. They didn't want to do that. It's one more thing to keep up with.
They didn't want to be old. And so what did you do? So a good friend of mine, and now a business partner of mine, was one of the top executives at Amazon.com. And I said, Andy, how good is this voice technology, things like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa? I mean, is it really secure and reliable enough for life safety and also to be there 24-7 so that you've got a connector to make calls and stay more socially engaged and that sort of thing? How far along is voice technology? Because, Mark, it's amazing. So we got the demonstration. We put it to its paces, did a lot of testing.
And now we have this solution out there for not just for older adults or people with disabilities, but really anyone that lives alone or might want a bit of added protection and security in over 200 markets with healthcare partners in those towns. So it's come a long way since we first met about two and a half years ago. We took the voice technology, and the first thing we had to do was solve my second problem with Mom. Mom said, I'm not going to wear anything. So we got that check the box.
You don't have to wear anything. It's always available. It's always plugged in. It's always charged. We even have battery backups.
So if the power goes out, you can still use it. We did a couple of things. Mom said, I didn't want to have a speaker in the house that would be listening to me. What about privacy? Who's listening?
What about Big Brother? Now, this was something that I knew how to solve and knew what to do. So I got my team together, some of the brightest in cybersecurity, and we created a private cloud. So when you use our speaker system at Constant Companion, you're anonymized.
That means if you would like your speaker to know your first name, Peter, we can set that for you. But it won't know your full name, doesn't know your address, doesn't even know what city or state that you're in. 100% locked down behind military-grade encryption. Now, look, I've been around cyber my whole life, and I know that anything can be hacked if there's a prize on the other end, like a million dollars or a billion dollars or state secrets or something.
If it's worth spending a lot of money hacking, anything can be hacked. So we went a step further and we removed shopping and anything that would have your credit card or bank accounts connected. There's none of that in there, and we insured that with Lloyd's of London for a million dollars per customer.
So if anything happens for any reason while you're a client of Constant Companion where your personal information is accessed or your conversations are revealed, anything like that at all, we'll issue up to a million dollars in reimbursements and money to cover repairs or expenses. So that really gave my mom and a lot of other people's moms and dads peace of mind. That was helpful. So it's insured for privacy. And number two, something else you cannot get anywhere else that's unique to us is our call for help feature. If you ask Alexa or Google to call 911, they'll say, sorry, I can't do that. You can't contact emergency services yourself directly.
Well, if you're laying on the floor and you've had a fall, you're having chest pains or you're having any kind of a problem whatsoever, or you hear somebody rattling the door late at night and you don't know where your phone is or you can't get to your phone, that's not helpful. So with our solution, from any room in your house at any time, you can say call for help and be instantly connected by two-way voice to our urgent response agents. They're highly trained.
All of them are U.S.-based and they're there 24-7 in multiple centers around the country. We've got you covered in an emergency. And Peter, that provides a lot of peace of mind.
I know for me and a lot of families and other caregivers, they just want to be able to go out for a dinner or go to the grocery store or not have to worry if they leave even for a few minutes that their loved one is really by themselves. Now they're connected. All right. Let's go a little bit deeper because I'm – first of all, to back up and just clarify one thing. So when somebody is a part of this system, this military-grade encryption, and like I said, you worked at the White House. You've done all kinds of stuff with the military over the years and with high-level encryption. You assign a unique identifier to that individual, but you strip away all the personal information that's stored in the cloud so that if anybody on the off chance that they even possibly could hack it, they wouldn't know what they were hacking because it's a unique identifier to that individual that is – so you're not dealing with credit cards.
You're not dealing with all that kind of stuff. And even, like you said, they don't even know what state that the person is in. That's how well you guys have barricaded the personal information of the client. Did I properly relay that?
You got it exactly right. In fact, this is the way we communicate with our embassies overseas. Unless you've got the same physical hardware and the same encryptor that we're running on, there's no way you'd ever access it. And that person is a series of very complicated numbers and digits and strings on the internet. So you can enjoy your smart speakers, listen to music, call friends and family. But you can have fun online asking riddles and jokes and questions from the web. But you, as a user, are completely anonymous online. And going a step further with that, to have that kind of peace of mind with a million dollars of insurance, we understand that privacy is a big deal. I think that we've all got an unhealthy relationship with our technology companies in America.
And I love America and I love freedom, but I also love privacy. And whether it's the phone company or your internet service provider or Facebook and Google and Amazon, they promise not to sell our data, Peter. But they get caught doing it. And then they say, oh, sorry, sorry, we didn't mean to do that.
We'll fix it. And then when you see those new user agreements that are 40 pages long, little tiny print, you go, what am I really signing here? And whoever reads them. And that's how they make their money. I guess if they're not charging for something, they feel you're the product. So they're going to sell your information. And even when they are charging for a service, and they promise not to, sometimes your information is out there. So I look forward to being of service to families like I was for my mom where not only can she be safe, not have to wear something, they can be more connected, engaged, protected.
But not just protected in an emergency that your personal information is protected. Well, the three I's that every caregiver deals with, and we talk about this on the show a lot, every caregiver without exception will deal with isolation, loss of identity, and loss of independence. And I believe in my heart of hearts, and I am convinced of this, and this is 34 years as a caregiver, I understand this world, I get it. That we can never replace the human connection, but we can offload some of the strain onto technology.
And this is what would intrigue me about what you're doing. And so when I look at things like what's going on in this nursing home, and this is not an isolated event, you're seeing elder abuse going on in a regular basis. We are almost, you know, and it cripples families, by the way, when families see what they have, they live with tremendous guilt. Oh my gosh, I had no idea this was going on. And their father or their mother or a special needs loved one was put there for care and for safekeeping, and it turns out they're just being horribly abused, like we just saw on the news.
This is happening, and it's happening on a nightmarish quality, I mean, cycle here of what's going on. And so I was thinking about, okay, so what can we do with tech? So with this system that you have, for example, if somebody has a loved one in a nursing home, what can they do to feel a little bit more secure knowing that that loved one is being cared for well? Well, we do provide our systems in assisted living facilities, and during the pandemic, more and more, families are actually bringing mom or dad home, but they need some help being able to provide that 24-7 level of care. And with our solution, with a smart speaker in every room, including the master bathroom, where most falls occur, care is always there, and you can do a lot to stay engaged. Our speakers act as a two-way intercom, so you can literally drop in and communicate back and forth from your house to mom's house 24-7, and mom doesn't have to go to a phone or run to the phone or find the phone. So you just say, I'll just check it in with you, mom. I just want to make sure you're okay.
All right, mom? And it's just that easy, right? It's just that easy, and it means the world to both of you, both for you to be a good son or daughter and for them to hear your voice means the world, and it just takes seconds to do. Another thing that you can do is set reminders. You can set reminders for medication, for your favorite TV shows, for meals, for anything that you'd like to.
And people love getting kind of a schedule and a rhythm to life, especially if they're starting to have a little bit of memory issues, as many people and all of us probably will as we age. So having those little reminders and touch points are really valuable, and they get so attached to their smart speaker. Sometimes they say – I've had multiple people comment – it's almost like they've got a little roommate.
It's like somebody moved in with them. And it's not the same as a son or a daughter or a good friend, but it is company. It's there 24-7. It responds in two seconds.
It's always there. And it can call your son or your daughter. You don't have to remember the phone number. You just say, call Peter or call my son or call my daughter. It calls for you. If the phone rings, no more running for the phone. You can just say, answer.
There you go. Got it on speakerphone in every room. But my favorite part of it from a security perspective is it eliminates 100% of telemarketing and robocalls. And we've had some sons and daughters that were my age or baby boomer 40s and 50s or even 60s say, I'd like to get one of those for my house just for that telemarketing thing. It drives me nuts. Well, but think about all the – but think about all the scams that are going on there for elder people that are falling prey to these things.
Any call up and your extended car warranty or the Social Security Administration has put out a warrant for your arrest. I mean there's so many of these things going on out there and this just cuts that out. You don't have to worry about – for spam calls, you don't have to worry about your phone not being charged or charged up. Those are the kind of things that I'm hearing you say that become a huge help. And it doesn't require that your loved one be an expert at technology.
That's right. Another thing we do – and I love what you said, Peter, about those scams targeting seniors. We had a client sign up last week whose mom had that exact thing happen and they got her for a couple of thousand dollars. And she didn't have a couple of thousand to lose. It was a lot of money to them. And you just hate to see it and they may or may not ever get it back. And it just makes you mad as all get out for anyone to have that happen, especially someone who's more vulnerable. But you're absolutely right.
You don't need to be a technology person at all. We pre-program and set up and customize all of the speakers for you with a white glove service. We do that before it arrives.
It comes in a beautiful box. You just take it out, just plug it in. If you can plug a cord into an outlet, you can set up Constant Companion.
That's it. And then you call our toll-free number and one of our voice advisors. They're very friendly. They'll stay with you on the phone and walk you through getting started with your system. And we have a plan. We have a program, a 30-day program that helps anybody get started, including a little fun flip chart you keep on the coffee table by your speaker. And if you just read a couple of words in big, bold letters, you're an expert with Alexa in no time. And if you're a Hope for the Caregiver radio show participant, you get 20% off your first year of the service. But you get something very special, Peter, that we're only doing for Hope for the Caregiver because we really are a fan of the show and we're a big fan of family caregivers. During this program and any repeats of it, not only will you get a 20% discount off a first full year of service, every how you choose to pay monthly, whatever, it's just fine. And no long-term contracts, you just pay month to month. But we're going to give a free smart speaker for the son or daughter who's helping mom or dad get set up so that you can have one in your home if you don't already. That's free of charge.
Now it gets better. We believe you wouldn't buy a house without checking it out first. You probably wouldn't buy a car without driving one, although these days you can buy them online and not do the test drive.
I'm kind of old school. I want to do the test drive and make sure it's the right one for me. So anyone who gets Constant Companion has an eight-week test drive. If for any reason it's just not for you, we think you're going to love it. We think you're going to absolutely think it's fantastic. We never get them back. People just love them. But if you feel you want to return it for any reason in the first eight weeks, full refund, no questions asked, we'll even send you the prepaid shipping label to return it.
It's just that simple. Well, that is incredible. Mark, that's an incredible gift, and I thank you. We're talking with Mark Grave, Constant Companion.
I asked him to be on the show today. There's some things that are going on in the news just in the last 48 hours that are just heartbreaking. And we can address these things with tech. We can help families deal with this. Families are having to look at loved ones through windows, and they don't know if they're being treated well. There's so many different things.
Fraud is rampant, all these kinds of things. And we're going to talk about this some more. Don't go away. We've got more to go.
This is Mark Grave from Constant Companion. If you want to be a part of this show, 877-655-6755, 877-655-6755, you know what? Let's help offload some of that stress on you as a caregiver to technology.
Not all of it, but just enough of it that's going to give you a chance at breathing a little bit better. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Larry the Cable Guy, and you are listening to Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberg.
And if you're not listening to it, you're a communist. Get er done. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on the Family Talk channel, Sirius XM 131. We are live. I am Peter Rosenberger, 877-655-6755 if you want to be a part of the show. That's my wife, Gracie, and that's from her new record, Resilient. If you'd like a copy of that, go out to Hopeforthecaregiver.com.
Just click on the little tab. There's the picture of her CD cover. And if for any donation to this ministry for what we're trying to do here, if it's a tax-deductible gift, you know what, we'll send you a copy of it.
Whatever's on your heart, just we'll send you a copy. And it's Hopeforthecaregiver.com. The record is resilient, and she is indeed resilient. And she just finished fighting off the COVID-19.
She whipped it. And so that's pretty impressive given the fact that she's had 80 surgeries and both of her legs amputated and 100 doctors have treated her and 12 different hospitals. And so here she's tough. I tell her she's tougher than train smoke.
All right, we're talking with Mark Gray, and he is with Constant Companion. And I saw some things on the news this week that just broke my heart. And I thought, okay, we've got to address this.
We've got to be smart about this. Two different events just in the last 48 hours. One of them was I saw a report where a nursing home attendant in Michigan was beating up an elderly patient. I mean, and posted, videoed themselves doing it and posted it themselves on social media.
I mean, to brag about it was just, it was ridiculously horrific. And then I saw a woman who said that her nine-year-old child with autism ran off. And it turns out in reality she had killed the child. These are why I do the show for this type of reason, because this is what's happening to families out there. And when people are struggling to care for a loved one that they can't care for anymore, but they feel guilty because the loved one is locked away in a place that they hope they're going to be safe, how do we know? And then in that isolation that caregivers, every caregiver deals with, you feel so out of control at times.
Dark thoughts come at you, and I thought, how do we connect these people? Remember, caregivers suffer from three eyes. We become isolated, we lose our identity, and then we lose our independence. And you can't be at the nursing home 24-7, and yet you may not be able to take care of that person, because they may need 24-7 CNA-type care, nursing care, and so forth, and you can't do it. A lot of people are bringing loved ones home because they're scared to leave them in a place where the virus can run rampant, and if it's not this virus, it'll be something else. The surveys are showing, the data is showing that 92% of people want to age in their own home. Well, how is that going to be possible without crushing family caregivers? That's why I invited Mark Gray on today, because there is a way to do this. There is a path, and it involves offloading some of that stress that we have from that loss of independence onto technology.
And it also has a way of being able to offload the heartbreak of isolation through technology, where we're checking on somebody, where we're connecting with people, we're not being so removed from people. Now, there's a service on this program that he does, and I've tested this on myself. I've actually tested this with Gracie. We've been doing this now for several weeks, and you can program a timeframe in where you will get a call, and you as a caregiver can set up what the script is going to be.
If you need to do that, they'll walk you through that process. I tested this with Gracie, so Gracie gets a call once a week just to check on her. Just say, okay, Gracie, how are you doing?
Is there anything going on with your meds that you need to be engaged with today, or is there a doctor's appointment coming up? Whatever it is that we want to say to have the conversation. And Gracie's like, what have you done to me?
Who are these people calling? I said, Gracie, just try it. And she's really found it to be very helpful. I've listened to these conversations she's had, and it's just a very pleasant conversation that she gets to have with someone. And I thought about this woman with this child with autism.
If somebody was calling her once a week, two or three times a week, five days a week, just to say, hey, are you okay? We just want to check in with you. Are you okay?
How's your heart today? Do you need to talk to someone? Anybody that can penetrate that isolation with meaningful phrases and dialogues and questions that will help point them to safety. This is not the first time that this has happened where a parent has become overwhelmed with their special needs child and then have made a horrific decision. And so that's why I wanted to have Mark talk about this. So, Mark, delve into those things, because that's the heart and soul of what we're trying to do on this show, is to be able to point caregivers to safety.
And I know that they get into real trouble in those isolated places. So let me start with that part of it first, of just the setup where you have somebody that's calling in, somebody that's engaging, how that works, what that can do for individuals, not just for the patients and the loved ones, but for the caregivers themselves. That kind of thing.
Talk about that a little bit. Well, that's really the heart of it. With Constant Companion, the family caregiver, you're no longer in this alone anymore. You've got teammates and our entire professional staff, most of them, if not 100 percent of them, have been both family caregivers and professional caregivers. Registered nurse, working in assisted living and home care, they get it.
They walked, maybe not your exact mile, but they walked their mile with their family members and they care about it. So our advisors are friendly boys on the other end of that phone that first of all can just listen and hear how are you doing today as a caregiver and connect with you and they really will listen. Number two, they can help you deliver or develop a care plan. And then number three, we can use some automation and a little bit of technology, voice technology is really easy to use. You don't have to work a computer.
If you've never used a computer or a smartphone, you'll be just fine. You just talk to it like a friend. And it can, as you said, Peter, it can automate, as you're starting to see with you and Gracie, you can automate some of those just everyday little tasks or little light touches, but they need a lot. It's the little things and it's always there. And then number two, those daily care calls, and we have clients that have them seven days a week. We have some that get them twice a day, sometimes in the morning to make sure you have everything, you had a good night's sleep and you got up okay and you're having your breakfast and did you feed Fluffy the cat? By the way, Fluffy thinks you're awesome.
Okay. And they get to know you. You will get the same care coordinator calling you Monday through Friday. Every day it's the same person. They get to know you personally on the weekend.
You'll also get the same weekend person. And they're just fantastic people. We recruit the very, very most talented folks to make those calls because you're not just inviting us to put some equipment in your house. You're inviting us into your home and into your life. And we want to make a difference. Our mission is to make people's lives better.
And that's what you'll find. And if you visit us at companion247.com, scroll down and look at some of the story. We have lots of little short videos from caregivers, from family caregivers, professional caregivers who use us, from the end users who are just people to death with hearing your favorite music again. They used to try to find it on the radio at a certain time of day and can't find that show anymore. And they can hear stories or audiobooks or their favorite music. Whether you like Elvis or Sinatra, you can get anything you want 24-7 and it's all there for the ask computer.
And that's companion 247, companion 24-7, companion 24-7. And I want you to go check this out today and see this, because these are real life solutions now. We've we're seeing the news. We're seeing the families that are so crushed and hurt by what's going on. And they don't know what's going on behind those walls, behind that glass for a lot of their loved ones.
They don't know. And then we also see these caregivers that are at the end of their rope and nobody's calling. That's why on this show, the first question I ask when any caller calls in is, how are you feeling when I go out and speak to people or see them just around town? How are you feeling? I want to know how a caregiver is feeling. Can you imagine how how wonderful that would be to hear that every single day from someone who really does want to know how you're feeling and can be there for you to point you to safety every single day if you need to hear it? Just a quick phone call just to check in with you. How are you feeling? And these special needs parents that have children that are incredibly challenging to deal with at times.
And these parents that get at the end of the rope, they're isolated. And all of a sudden they get a phone call that says, hey, how are you feeling? Wow. Imagine the difference it can make. Imagine the difference. I've had a chance to talk to many of them on the phone and I don't tell them I'm the owner or the CEO.
I just mark in customer care and I check in on you. And it's amazing what happens after about eight weeks. You can just hear the difference in people's voices. They've been lifted and they're telling jokes that they've heard.
They're laughing more. Our power user this past month is 82 years old. His first name is Paul.
I'm not going to say any more information because we believe in privacy in Virginia. And he talks to his smart speaker 72 times a day. That's on average. That's his average usage. We don't know what he's talking about or what he's listening to. But we can see the activity in the data usage.
72 times a day. Now, this particular individual, I believe, is bed-bound. But he uses it to turn his lights off and on, TV off and on. He can even lock and unlock the door for a caregiver. He's got a more advanced version of the tools, but that's just amazing. And our most advanced power user age-wise is 101 years old and they're loving it. And so that just shows you we can use voice technology no matter what generation we grew up in. It's easy.
It's fun. And if you're struggling as a caregiver, if your family is facing those tough questions of what are we going to do? You know, how are we going to solve this for mom? And she doesn't want to leave home and go to a nursing home, especially right now when you see what's in the news. 30 to 40 percent of all the deaths in America are in nursing homes.
It's the killing fields as they're calling it in the paper. People want to stay at home, Peter. They want to be where their life memories are, where they've raised the kids, where they've had the holidays.
You know what? For dementia patients, they are more apt to exacerbate that dementia by going to an unfamiliar environment. And if they stay in their own homes, they can do this. But that's not possible. It's going to crush family caregivers. Here's a way that this is more possible for people, for families to make this decision to use this. And it's secure. It's safe.
It's reliable. You can cut out so many of the pitfalls that happen when people start using tech because they don't know what they're doing. This is all integrated to do this, to make it a smart home for people. And this is, to me, this is just an extraordinary solution. Now, let me ask you this. What about video monitoring to make sure that they're safe, they can check in on video without disrupting privacy, but at the same time being able to do that?
What can we do? Sure. We have three platforms, Standard Plus and Premium.
Premium comes with a video screen that is voice activated. So mom can call or send her daughter and video chat. I just had mine this afternoon. I do video chat with my mom and dad every single Sunday.
I've been doing it for over a year. They can't wait. They're sitting by the video screen with their tea or their coffee waiting for that call. And we talk for about an hour every Sunday. And it's like a little miniature visit. You know, the average family lives hundreds of miles apart these days, Peter. We've all migrated and moved a bit around the country.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But as we age, we'd like to be able to see each other. And it sure is a lot less expensive and less dangerous right now, probably, than getting on a plane and flying home to visit. So you can have those video chats anytime you want. You can do it every morning. And you don't have to wear a mask while you do it. And so my mom can be on her video device that we provide and she can call me and whether I'm at home or on the go, you can download the free app and have a video chat with your mom or your dad or your loved one right from your smartphone.
So they don't have to learn anything fancy or high tech. They just say, call Peter. And there is a video conference going right away. So I love that. And we get loads and loads of comments and notes about video. And what if you have a caregiver in the home taking care of mom or dad and you'd like, not unlike having a babysitter or a nanny when you got a little one at home, you might want to have a video monitor to drop in and just see how things are going.
And you know what? People are doing their best behavior when you know you're checking on them. Well, Reagan said trust, but verify, you know, and I think I think that's a that's a good model to live by. So you could put this even if even if they are an assisted living, you could still put this in there and you could check with right on your phone just to make sure that all is OK. And because this individual that was arrested this week for assaulting this man in the nursing home, he wasn't doing it like in the restroom behind the closed doors of the restroom. He was doing it right over the guy's bed right there in the room.
And you could have. Yep, 24 seven in two seconds, you can be connected either by voice or by video, whichever platform you prefer. And just to summarize for your listeners that they've just joined the show, we're talking about voice technology that has one hundred percent cybersecurity to protect your identity. And your family members are completely anonymized. That is backed by a million dollar guarantee that we will take care of any expenses.
If you ever have your privacy invaded up to a million dollars on our system, they're that secure backed by Lloyd's of London. It arrives in a beautiful package. It's already programmed. Everything's done for you. All you have to do is plug it in and we offer a white glove service to help families get started and really a 30 day program where we do a little step each day to learn more and more about what's possible to offload. Some of the stress and worries with reminders, with communication, with access to so many free tools that come with the systems. We make it easy to get started.
You have eight weeks to return with a complete refund. And there's no long term contracts. You just pay monthly, month to month, no equipment to buy.
In fact, even if you don't have Internet, we have advanced systems where the Internet cellular Wi-Fi high speed is built right in. It's all taken care of. All you got to do is decide we want to move forward and we want to take care of our family and we want to be able to age in place at home with dignity, with security and moments of joy. We should put some fun back into caregiving, Peter. Well, and if you don't know what to get for someone, maybe you're seeing someone in your circle that is – and I'm not talking about you, Mark. I'm just talking about the listeners. For you listeners that are seeing somebody in your circle that are struggling, that have special needs family members, so forth, and they feel kind of cut off.
If you want to get a gift for somebody like this, this is a great gift to give because it allows them to know that they're going to be connected now, that they're not going to be doing this alone. They're not going to be struggling and feel like their shoulders to the wheel and they're the only ones pushing this thing. There are specific ways that people can engage and, like I said, offload some of this stress that we have so that we can breathe a little bit easier. We can be a little – I didn't have anything like this so many times that I felt when Gracie was recovering from surgeries and so forth that I couldn't leave her very well.
I had to have somebody there with her because I didn't – or she would fall and things such as that if she was – if somebody tried to – if she couldn't get to the phone or whatever. This is a godsend for those of us who have lived with anybody with a mobility impairment, anybody that is dealing with all types of post-surgical things and so forth that needs extra monitoring. What about with telemedicine? Does this – talk about the integration with this with telemedicine because that's a big thing now because taking somebody to the doctor comes with its own – well, it's been coming with risk. If you have somebody with mobility impairments, you're taking them to the doctor, that itself is just a headache.
You had to take off time for work, go get them, get them out of the house where there's a fall risk. Telemedicine now is – and all that for just something like a sinus infection or whatever. But for telemedicine, this can be a huge help. Tell me how that works in just a few minutes.
We only got a few more minutes. Sure, especially during COVID-19 when you have even more risk going to the doctor if you don't have a problem before you go, you might pick one up in the waiting room. That's why the doctors don't want you coming in if you've got anything – symptoms like COVID-19. But yes, we absolutely offer an upgrade to any of our systems where you can add an 8-inch video screen that is specially built for secure, encrypted telehealth, and all that telehealth is – and it's simple to use. It's one touch and you're connected to your doctor.
It is a video house call, and there's two kinds. There's one where you connect to your regular doctor, your regular doctor that you've been seeing for years. You can make an appointment during the day to do that and see them by video.
We can support it all the way. And number two, what if it's nights and weekends and your doctor is not open? You can have a virtual quick care visit like a walk-in clinic, I think, for not major emergency room things like a broken leg or a heart attack, but if it's something minor to medium range, you can have a virtual quick care walk-in clinic visit on video chat. And it's 100 percent covered by Medicaid or Medicare. Most insurances are waiving all of the deductibles because they're trying to encourage it. We make it easy. You can rent those devices with your system month to month during COVID-19 if you love it and keep it forever.
It includes the high-speed cellular, and once again, we're there to set it up for you and help anytime you need it toll-free. Speaking of toll-free, our advisors are the nicest people. They're not pressure sales folks. They're there to help. If you got a question, give us a call. All right.
It's companion247, companion247.com. Last question. I'll let you go. What about for this telemedicine? Will that also involve mental health counseling visits as well?
Can you do it that way? Is that part of it? It is a huge push, Peter. It's a great question. It's the future for mental health care because we need to be able to connect with people. We need to be able to have instant access when it matters most, and help is on the way with telehealth, telemedicine. If you're struggling, if you feel dark thoughts where the idea of suicide crosses your mind, or you're just depressed, or you're just feeling isolated or lonely, care is always there, one touch, one call, one click away, and that's one of the great things about our system, and the great thing about telehealth is part of our future. And we're glad to be a small part of it, helping your listeners get started with a little bit of equipment and some empathy to make life a little better. Well, this is why I do the show.
I mean, it's providing real-life solutions for folks that can help them get to a place of safety. I understand the crushing burdens of being a caregiver in ways that I hope many don't ever have to, even though I know that there are so many that are struggling, even now as we talk about it. This is something that I feel is the way of the future for us as caregivers, that we can navigate this journey a little bit easier. So many things are pulling at us, and we're stretched so thin, we've got to have some practical help, and this is the way to do it. This is a way to keep families a little bit more engaged in the care of their loved one instead of feeling like they've got to shuttle back and forth to assisted livings and so forth.
There are a lot of different things that we can do now, and it'll never replace the human touch, but there's a human touch in this, and it helps then provide a mechanism for us as caregivers to do this. Mark Gray of Constant Companion, the website is companion247, companion247, companion247, go ahead and check it out. Just look around, see, you've got nothing to lose, and you've got a whole lot to gain by doing this, companion247.com, companion247.com. Mark, I've got to run, but thank you so much for taking the time to call with us today, okay? Peter, thanks for having us on the show, and don't forget to remind your listeners, use the code CAREGIVER for a special 20% discount and a gift from us for being a listener on your show. Well, thank you very much.
That is a very generous offer that you did. The code is CAREGIVER. Put in that promo code, CAREGIVER. Companion247.com. Mark Gray from Constant Companion. Thank you so much, Mark, for being part of the show. It really means a lot. .
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-23 21:41:19 / 2024-01-23 22:00:02 / 19
