Transforming TV into a Caregiver’s Tool

Transcript of Interview: “Transforming TV into a Caregiver’s Tool”

Mike Barnes:  I think for so many of us, we learn very early as we’re dealing with our aging parents, that keeping things simple

helps so, so much.

Kim Barnes: Absolutely. And especially when it comes to the TV and technology. Yes. The things that we can really put in place that will help us help them, but we still wanna try to keep it as simple as possible. Yes. today we’re joined by Michelle Wright with Jubilee tv. Thanks so much for being with us.

Michelle Wright: Hi, Kim and Mike. Nice to be here today.

Kim Barnes: I obviously am a huge fan of Jubilee tv. We’ve been using this with my mom and it has really helped us so much in being able to kind of interact and be able to keep her independence, if you will. Let’s just start with, kind of the concept of it is, I guess first and foremost is making the TV use much simpler.

Michelle Wright: Yes, that’s exactly right. So we know that for many older adults, TV is really the most familiar, most tech trusted technology in the home. And so when we started this project, it was really how do we. [00:01:00] that technology as accessible as possible for a senior. and so we, we did some things to really try to simplify that experience for them.

And then from there we said, okay, so it TV has traditionally been a screen for entertainment, right? It’s, a sort of a passive experience, but I have this really big, beautiful, large, loud screen. Could I use it for more than that? and so what we did was really think about how could we. Make the TV a place where as a family member with an aging loved one, I could communicate with them, I can get some visibility into them, and it’s really about helping enable their independence and then giving me sort of that peace of mind and just tools to help support them and their independence as they age at home.

Kim Barnes: So let’s start with just helping them with the TV because a lot of times people think, oh, I’m just gonna give them a simple remote that’ll solve the issue. And the challenge is, sometimes that’s not enough. Our TVs are so complicated now, and I love that I can [00:02:00] get on the app on my phone and one, just see what mom’s watching as well as, and maybe make some suggestions of other things to watch, but also just frankly change it for her if she gets stuck.

So, yeah, this is a great opportunity for us to actually just like see it in action.

Michelle Wright: Yeah, let’s show you a little bit. So the system itself, just real quick is, you can see behind me, but there’s, a box that connects to mom’s television and then it comes with a simple voice remote. So this controls everything. It controls the TV cable box streamers. So that’s sort of. Sort of mom’s side of the equation.

But then I said, okay, so what if mom gets stuck, right? As you mentioned. So we also have the ability to see what’s playing on the TV from the app. So you can sort of see here, my app is a realtime view of the TV behind me. and then I have full control from the app as well. that’s a real differentiator here is not only that.

Control, but the ability to see what I’m doing, right? Because there’s not, there’s nothing more [00:03:00] frustrating than trying to fly blind on the phone and tell someone how to switch inputs

Navigate Netflix. This really erases all of that, right? I, think, Kim, you have this experience, right? Like your mom will call and tell you what she wants and then you can do it for her, right?

Kim Barnes: yes. Yeah. So can you show us kind of in action what, we can do?

Michelle Wright: So let me,

We can do things like change channels. So I can type, me type it in. ESPN. So I’m typing ESPN into my little command box here. I send that command and then that is changing the channel on the tv.

Kim Barnes: That’s amazing.

Michelle Wright: Or I can go to Roku, for example.

Kim Barnes: And you can even just. [00:04:00] Yeah. Okay. And you can it works with Roku. Wow. And you can even channel up or channel down just like she could. Yeah. but if you’re trying to help her find the right thing. Yeah. So

Mike Barnes: that’s the thing I like about it so much watching Kim use it with her mom is that Kim could easily be on her mom saying Okay on with her mom saying, okay, mom, no, touch that button.

no, do, that. And it would take 20 minutes just to change the channel to the right one. But instead. C Kim still has to do the, work, and it’s still a little bit of a, well, come on honey, can you help her? But it’s just click and it takes away all of that time. Makes it so much easier,

Kim Barnes: the frustration on both of our ends.

Yeah. Because if

I’m trying to direct her and she can’t get to the right, she’s not finding the right button or whatever, then she gets frustrated and I get frustrated and, it just, it, this is, it just speeds up the process a lot. Yes. I imagine that. What are the, what’s the, feedback or the most common uses that you find for this partal?

this particular feature is just the ability to be able to change the [00:05:00] channel for people.

Michelle Wright: And make streaming more accessible.

I think Netflix for a lot of older adults is, challenging, right? Like navigating this Roku menu and trying to get to what you wanna get to. Like, it’s hard for me.

Kim Barnes: Yeah. Imagine, like you have cognitive decline, vision issues, whatever. So I think that ability to say like, oh, there’s this documentary that I watched about World War II history that my dad would love. And to be able to just put that on for him because he would never find it on Netflix, has been super helpful for people. And then some of the, just troubleshooting stuff, like I can actually go into Netflix and, in a, like if, mom gets logged out and can’t remember her password, I can remotely go in and,

Michelle Wright: A So just like sort of those little things that I might have to make an extra trip over to the house to do are avoided. just by, by being [00:06:00] able to do it from the app and then frankly, like we hear from people. Dad’s not so mad about the TV all the time, and now we actually have time to like, have more meaningful conversations because he is, he’s not so angry about the tv, all the time..

Kim Barnes: Yeah, and you mentioned Roku and Netflix, so it does work with most streaming services and or smart TVs.

Michelle Wright: Yeah, so the, IT works with all the major cable and satellite providers and all the major streaming devices. What it does not work with is if you watch apps directly on a smart tv. So if I do Netflix through the smart tv, we’re not able to control that remotely. So we just advise people to connect to Roku if you wanna do

Kim Barnes: and That.

And then you just, so you really are open in some ways opening up their world to a lot more possibilities versus just, with my mom, it was just channel up, channel down. And that was really the extent of her. That’s the extent of her being able to sort of choose what she wants to watch. And so this really kind of opens up to a lot more op opportunities.

Michelle Wright: It does,

We [00:07:00] Yeah.

really have tried to design for a spectrum of seniors. We recently introduced, a simple six button remote. So this has power mute, volume up, volume down channel up, channel down. And in this case, you just connect a single cable box. and, but the cool thing is channel up and down goes through only the channels that you’ve set.

I can say Mom really only watches these five channels, or she, in a lot of cases, this person has dementia

Watching a certain channel might be agitating. I don’t really want them

So I’m gonna exclude that from the list.

 Maybe just channel up and down through some.

Nice. Friendly, friendly channels. we’ve really tried to design for that spectrum of someone who is more independent like your mom, right? And, sort of knows what she wants to watch, and maybe just needs a little help to someone cognitive decline or dementia who really needs a [00:08:00] lot more support and, just needs a very, simple experience.

Mike Barnes: But the, other thing I like is that sometimes Kim’s mom gets too independent because Kim likes her to get out of her apartment and get down and, have some fun and, socialize with other people. And she’ll ask her, well, mom, what have you been doing? Oh, I’ve been doing this. Have you been watching tv?

No, not really. And Kim can check and see, mom, you’ve been watching for four hours. what’s going on there. So it helps there. So you’re able to make sure that they’re not doing, I guess what. You don’t want them to do out of the or, outta the ordinary.

Michelle Wright: Yeah, exactly. Like a change in habits. We sort of give you that visibility in a couple of different ways. so we have a feature that’s called Activity Feed and what that shows you is. TV on and off, remote control button presses. but you can actually also set it to show you presence in front of the camera so I can see when one person is present or when more than [00:09:00] one person is present. So I might use this in a situation where I’ve got a caregiver that comes to the house, and I can get a notification, oh, there’s two people present in front of the camera. Okay, so now I know. person showed up when they were supposed to. Right? Tons of different use cases. Like I might look at, oh, the TV’s going on in the middle of the night.

All of a sudden that’s different. Like, do I need to have a conversation

with and to see what’s going on. So it can kind of give you that visibility without. I, like to say without like sort of disrupting or hovering, right? Like I sort of get this data and insight without having to constantly, are you okay?

How’s

Kim Barnes: Yeah.

Michelle Wright: dah, So it’s, like a nice, balance again for independence and my peace of mind.

Kim Barnes: And then I like the drop in feature too, because I can literally just check in and see. Okay. She is watching tv. She’s there, she’s safe, she’s good. And then kind of move on and without having to call her just to check.

Michelle Wright: Yeah,

Kim Barnes: Yeah.

Michelle Wright: what [00:10:00] that drop-in feature does, is it basically gives me a one-way feed into the room so the TV can be on or off and I can basically, I just have a button on my phone here. I hit drop in. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with the audio.

Kim Barnes: But there you are. There we see it. Yeah.

Michelle Wright: there I’m exactly, nothing happens on the tv.

So Mom doesn’t know, in this case, it’s just a check in. I hear from. This is a nice use case for dementia when, so we also offer video calling, which would be that two-way interaction in some cases with dementia. times of the day or the video call might be agitating, I. And I just really like, mom’s working on a puzzle.

I don’t wanna interrupt her, but I just wanna make sure she’s okay. So I wanna just drop in, not bother. other cases I, maybe I do wanna do that video call and we wanna actually, a conversation with the grandkids or

whatever. we’re, again, just giving those sort of options depending on your, [00:11:00] family’s, use and situation.

Kim Barnes: And going back to just the regular remote that it comes with that has a lot of features on it that mom or dad can use to help control. So they could initiate a video call if they wanted, couldn’t they? Can you show us that? And you also said it’s voice activated if they wanna use it that way.

Michelle Wright: Yep. It’s voice activated, which allows them to say a channel name or number, or a device or an app, so they can say Netflix, and

it’ll

Kim Barnes: Okay.

Michelle Wright: could say, call Kim and it will take them over to this

Kim Barnes: To the.

Michelle Wright: So this is contact, so this is where I’ve got all my family members in. and so can navigate there and so mom can start a, call or send, a chat message, look at photos that you sent. is another fun one that families love so they can, send photos and then I can actually turn that into a slideshow, [00:12:00] of photos on the tv. so again, just that notion that I’m using this largest, loudest screen as a way to. Keep in touch, communicate. heard from customers, like mom’s so happy now ’cause she feels like she’s much more part of our daily lives.

’cause we send her photo, you know, and, I’ve got

Grandkids on here and they’re sending, photo of, whatever the new puppy or, even a little, they can send a little video message, hi grandma. Like, just thinking about you. pop up on the screen and she doesn’t have to do anything.

That’s the other piece of it. It’s no new technology to learn. This is. The,

This is the TV that I’m already familiar with.

Kim Barnes: Another feature that I use a lot is the reminders.

Michelle Wright: Yes.

Kim Barnes: Will you show us how that works? ’cause I think that has been a really useful tool. Don’t forget, it’s time for physical therapy or things like that. So again, so I don’t have to, I. I don’t have to set the alarm on my phone to remember to call mom at a certain [00:13:00] time or leave a meeting or whatever during the day, or just nag her so much, or, yeah, I feel like I’m nagging her.

Right, exactly. So it can be a little bit passive, but certainly a helpful reminder.

Michelle Wright: Yep. So I basically can use my app to set up, I can’t pop it up on here ’cause I gotta schedule it to pop up.

So so basically things like take your meds, time for an

Will just pop up on her tv and then I, as the caregiver can actually get notified that reminder popped up. And if I can set it so if mom presses the button on the remote, I can get notified, so I know she saw it.

The other cool thing with reminders is I can actually set the TV to do something. So, like, dad loves the Cardinals, right? So I know that the Cardinals are gonna play on Fox at 3:00 PM I can actually set a reminder that says, do you wanna watch the game?

Kim Barnes: Ah.

Michelle Wright: it’ll pop up and then it’ll automatically turn to Fox at 3pm.

Kim Barnes: Oh wow. I have, yeah, I don’t know. I [00:14:00] haven’t tried. That’s right. I have to do that for OU Football. I have to do that for mom, for OU football in the fall. Yeah.

Mike Barnes: That’s great.

Michelle Wright: Church service service is super popular. Like

If your church streams a YouTube channel or something, you could set it to go, right to that at a, certain time. so again, just makes the, makes those things that our loved ones love a little bit more accessible for them.

Mike Barnes: Yeah. So many things that make things easier for mom or dad, but make things better for us as well.

Kim Barnes: Right. Whether it’s us needing to help them or us just being able to observe them and or their activity. Exactly. In a very subtle way. Yeah. Which gives us great peace of mind as well. . I think we touched on all the features, didn’t we?

Michelle Wright: That’s, that’s most everything.

Kim Barnes: Yeah, and I think that the, we talked a little bit just briefly about the digital, it really can be the, this large digital picture frame, which can send those fa as you mentioned, send the videos or send photos so that it’s just always, they’ve got these big, [00:15:00] gigantic

pictures to be able to really see what’s going on in the family. And I think that, that, could be, that’s a really neat feature as well.

Michelle Wright: Yeah. Yeah, for

Mike Barnes: Yeah. Thanks so much for showing all of this because Jubilee TV shows us so much things to again, keep things simple and keep things safe for mom or dad.

Kim Barnes: Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Barnes: Yeah, so thank you so much, Michelle.

Michelle Wright: Thank you.

Mike Barnes: I, think what we’re learning here is that, what I always say is that the crisis is gonna come no matter what it is when, mom needs something. It’s, there’s a little bit of crisis there. Right. If we can lower that crisis level to make things much easier For us and for her, him or her Makes it so much better, doesn’t it? Well, and

Kim Barnes: just knowing that technology that they’re already familiar with, that they’re u they’ve been using for a long time, can be a way for us to be able to keep eyes on them Yeah. And be able to help them a little easier too.

Mike Barnes: If you have any other topics you’d like us to discuss, please let us know. Parenting, aging parents.

*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.