Austin senior community uses AI cameras for fall prevention

AUSTIN (KXAN) --- Senior living community Parmer Woods at North Austin recently incorporated SafelyYou, a technology-powered fall prevention program, to reduce the fall risk of senior residents.

SafelyYou offers artificial intelligence (AI) powered cameras that offer real-time alerts and video analysis to help care teams respond quickly to a fall.

"They assist right away to those residents. We can immediately look at the footage of the incident that took place," said Joe Dennis, Executive Director of Parmer Woods at North Austin.

Along with responding faster, staff can study the video to figure out how to stop a future fall. Dennis said they are assigned a nurse with SafelyYou to review footage.

"From their expertise, they can offer some great suggestions again to make sure that all of our preventive measures are in place for all of our residents," said Dennis.

Dennis said the cameras are specifically with residents who have dementia and Alzheimer’s. In the case of a fall, he said they can have a hard time describing what happened and the cameras can provide an extra layer of safety.  

"If somebody experiences one, and they're able to get up, they're not going to notify the staff if they have dementia," Dennis said. "Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. But this way, it really eliminates that issue."

Dennis said these sensors are not surveillance cameras, and that they only capture video when sensing someone on the floor.

Families like Addie Palmer's said the device gives them some peace of mind. Palmer just celebrated turning 101-years-old at the center.

"I can just rest better at night. They have a lot of residents here. So I think that's going to be a really amazing step forward."

Tashia Sigur, Family member

The inspiration behind SafelyYou

Former University of Texas student, George Netscher, created SafelyYou.

"Sitting on the 40 acres and dreaming about what I could build," Netscher said. "It's crazy to be at this point where we really are helping in such a meaningful way."

Netscher said his goal has always been to help people with Alzhiemer's disease, because it runs in his family.

"My mom is genetically predisposed," Netscher said. "My grandma had it. My mom's big sister had it."

Netscher said these sensors are now in about 450 communities across 37 states.

"On average, we'll reduce the number of falls in the community by about 50%," Netscher said. "They'll have 10 times fewer hospitalizations, because we're not sending folks who don't need to go, and we're able to actually understand someone's unmet needs and bring down the number of falls."

Ultimatley, Netscher said this gives people a voice.

"We can know if they just sat on the ground, or if they had a really serious fall. We can know about it right away and know if they potentially had a head injury or not."

George Netscher, SafelyYou CEO

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 14 million older adults in the U.S. fall each year, which is about one in four seniors. The CDC says falls are also the leading cause of injury for those aged 65 years and older.