Simply put, we see a problem in the world of the senior community and have the desire and passion to fix it.
Problem: A growing senior population combined with an increased length of retirement.
Globally, the population is growing at roughly 82 million people a year. Due to the nuclear family shifting, multi-generational families are on the decline, which means so is the care that so many seniors depend on.
To compound the growing population and length of retirement challenge, modern medicine is allowing us to live longer, and retirees want to remain in their homes for as long as possible. 90% of retired Americans (at or above 65) want to maintain their independence and live on their own. This phenomenon is so well known that the industry has coined the term “aging in place.” The average age of someone needing some sort of assistance in the US is 78 years old. That means that retirement is not the end point, but the beginning of the next chapter for the senior population.
Large corporations like SamsungⓇ and AT&TⓇ know that the growing senior population and longer span of retirement is a problem they want to fix. More importantly, these corporations want their customers to pay to fix it. Life Alert and other traditional security monitoring services try to provide a sense of security for the elderly and their loved ones. The reality of these services is that they are all reactionary. The real questions are, how can technology benefit the human experience, and how can we achieve a true understanding of the physical and mental status of those we love as they go through the average 13 years between retirement and needing assisted care?