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wfcrrFlag for United States of America

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Elderly Mom computer-how to use her computer to monitor her health

How to monitor activity on a PC?   I have an elderly mother living at home.  Her PC is a Windows 10 machine. The problem we are trying to solve is how to monitor her daily activity, to know that she is alive and well.  She is wanting us to check on her regularly throughout the day to make sure she is Ok.  She had a stroke a few months ago and has fully recovered, but, she is scared of having something happen and no one finding out for many hours or even days...

We are looking into ways of monitoring her activity in the house. I have found devices that monitor things like refrigerator door opening, another device the toilet flushing...etc...all things that an active human would be using regularly in the home.  It occurred to me that she is always on her computer.  I would like to know what we can use on her computer to see that she is active
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Paul MacDonald
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Have her send you a Tweet or Facebook post?

Ultimately, I see this as a question about how to spy on someone's computer, so I'm not going to answer that.  I will say this:  if you can monitor her refrigerator door and her toilet, you should be able to monitor the chair she uses to sit in front of the computer, so maybe that's your answer.
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as of now she is texting me each morning.  If you are ever tasked with the care of an elderly parent who wants to remain in their own home for as long as they are able, you will understand our predicament. If anyone has a helpful suggestion on how to use the computer to let us know she is active, it would greatly appreciated.  You would think there would be an app that gives her the ability to turn on and off the broadcasting of the "hey I'm alive" signal/message.  There are numerous articles of elderly singles living at home and how they use full video monitoring of all living spaces in their home, as well as devices that report on useage of appliances...meaning they actively have someone watching or looking in, all the time.  It beats living in a nursing home.  This is a real problem to solve and my question is a valid question for how to use the computer as a way to monitor her health.  Assistance on this topic is appreciated.
Does she have a medic alarm on her?  That will help give her peace of security in case she has another stroke or fall in that she will be able to call help.

Now as for checking up on her.  

Try having people ring her several times a day, morning, lunch and night time.  Different people so she doesn't get the same ones all of the time.

If she's constantly on the computer then get her to have a Twitter account and post something every couple of hours.  Something like "Having a cup of coffee"  "Just watched TV" and then monitor her Twitter account.
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nobus
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