It’s gone Jack. Sentry Telecare, Inc. – RIP April 2013.

Well, the company is gone; but the website lives on with a new owner: Daneco SPC Inc.

Caring about our clients/customers defines our nature. Sentry Telecare, Inc. delivered its telephone check-in services to people living alone with the purpose of checking on the well-being of the client. Focus on delivered. The outsourced delivery system became unreliable as highlighted by a total system shut down four times in two weeks. No calls – no check-in – great risk for the clients. With no assurance that there would be no additional shutdowns forthcoming we decided to take the necessary action.

We then set about finding a new service provider for our clients.  We succeeded and the majority of them moved to the new service without missing a daily call. The bonus – the new service is reliable, more affordable and it is easier to manage. I liked it so much that, in the name of Daneco SPC Inc., I have become an independent sales agent for the company.

The transition was easy and our website was re-cast to portray the changed circumstances. Check us out at www.sentrytelecare.com .  Give us a call at 1-403-200-6245. We would love to hear from you.

The offered service is a Telephone Reassurance Call: automated daily telephone check in service with emergency medical alerts as necessary. The clients live alone and  most often, but not exclusively, are in the so-called senior age group. The reasons that they are clients are varied: security seems to be the foremost need. Others though subscribed to the service because of their personal disabilities, because they have needs associated with their pets, or they just want to be checked in on daily for their own reasons. Remaining independent in their own home is without question important to many of our clients. Living alone is a very large topic. A purpose of this blog is to offer interesting or useful information that is relevant to people who live alone and to the people who are, or expect to become, caregivers. From this I hope that the content the blogs  will be enhanced through discussion. So please comment away!

LIVING ALONE

A lot of people live alone in Canada and United States. In these two countries I estimate that in 2011 more than 34 million people live alone in a household; and that approximately 12.5 million of those folks are sixty-five years of age or older. These are people who actually live on their own in households, not in group quarters or with others. (Estimates are based on various data available from the U.S. Census Bureau and from Statistics Canada). That’s a bunch of independent living wanted and caregiving that is needed.

And if that isn’t enough, by 2020 the number of people living alone in households will expand to about 38 million persons. Everything being equal then, those that live alone and are 65 or older would grow to exceed 17 million people by 2020. Why the big growth? The “baby boomers” are graduating into this age group at an increasing rate. We are reminded daily of the significance of this increase through media references to the forecast cost of health care, the plight of underfunded pension funds, and many other related subjects.

This blog is intended to give readers an opportunity to explore the human condition of people who live alone regardless of their age, but with emphasis on the typically more vulnerable group that has reached the so-called senior years of sixty-five plus. That isn’t to suggest that younger people cannot be vulnerable as well. From my direct experience I know that certain situations, for example diabetes induced comas or severe migraines, and a number of other disabilities, do not discriminate against any age group.

The number of topics that will hopefully open up for discussion through commentary seems limitless. Security (in all of its forms), medical matters, people with pets, living tips, caregiving, situation handling, and many more subjects are each important to someone.

About the geography of this blog. Each blog will be assigned a category. Should you the reader wish to focus on one of the noted categories, simply click it. Also, two areas of specific interest are indicated by tabs at the top of the page: Caregiving and Independent Living. As best I can figure, everyone who lives alone is in one or both of these groups. My intent is to post caregiving and independent living articles that are timely and provide in-depth or otherwise useful information on the related subjects.