Iris rings her every morning and has a real conversation with her. Iris is an automated call, not a real person, and says so in her first breath, but she is warm, she is unhurried, and she listens. You get a few lines about how she was, that evening. Not a camera, not a wristband, not another app she has to learn. Her own telephone, and somebody paying attention.
Meet Iris
Everybody who rings your mother is on their way somewhere else. Iris is not. She calls at a time your mother chooses, in her own language, and lets the conversation take as long as it takes, and she never lets your mother believe she is talking to a person.
“I’m an automated call, not a real person. I just wanted to see how you’re doing today.”
She says this in her first breath, before she asks anything, and again any time she is asked. If your mother would rather not talk today, that is an answer too, and the call ends.
We call your mother every morning and talk to her. Not a robot reading a checklist. A short conversation about how she slept, whether she has eaten, whether anything hurts, and whether she has taken her tablets.
Every evening you get a few lines about how she was, in plain words. Most days it will say she was fine. That is the point.
If she tells us something that worries us, you hear about it the same day.
If she does not answer, we try again. If she still does not answer, we tell you that, and we tell you exactly what we do and do not know. We never treat silence as good news.
She has to agree to the calls. We will not ring anybody who has not said yes.
Not a questionnaire, and not a test. It says what it is at the start, and it listens to the answer.
This is a made-up example, not a real person. We would never show you somebody else's call.
What it heard
The house is cold again. She said the same thing last Thursday.
What you would be told
In your note that evening: she was well, she had eaten, and the cold has now come up twice.
Nothing here needed you at nine in the morning. A cold house twice in a week does need somebody to know, so it is in the evening note rather than a telephone call.
You will assume some of these if we do not say them, and finding out at the wrong moment is not a thing we are willing to let happen.
We ask whether she has taken her tablets and we tell you what she said. We do not remind her to take them, we do not chase a dose she missed, and our list is not a medical record. Her pharmacy and her doctor keep that, and they are the ones to change it.
Nobody sits watching a screen at three in the morning. We notice things and we tell you. If she needs somebody to come, that is still you, or 911, or a monitored alarm she wears.
A phone call cannot. If she is at risk of falling she needs a monitored button as well as this, and we would rather say so than let you find out on the day it matters.
No camera, no sensors, no wristband, no app for her to learn. It works on the telephone she already has.
We tell you what she said and what we noticed. Deciding what it means is a job for somebody with a licence, and the daily note is written so you can hand it straight to one.
That happens on nearly every call, and it is why the daily note tells you what she said rather than a verdict on how she is. We also watch for the same small thing turning up on several days running, because a fortnight of "a bit tired" is a different fact from one tired morning.
Ask her. Some people like the call and some do not want it, and the ones who do not want it should not have it. It is one short conversation at a time she chooses, and she can tell us to stop on any call.
No. A telephone. A landline is fine.
We call in a number of languages and we will tell you plainly if hers is not one we can do properly yet. We would rather say no than call your mother in a language she half understands.
Whoever she says. She decides which of you gets the daily note, and she can change her mind. It is her health, so it is her decision, not the decision of whoever set up the account.
Tens of dollars a month, not hundreds, closer to a phone plan than to home care. We are setting up the first families by hand and talking to each of them, so there is no exact price on this page yet: the first ten are helping us set it. Tell us about her and we will tell you what it would take, with no obligation.
Then this is not ours to sell you. Her home is the custodian of her health information, and we will not call a resident or show you her day without the home agreeing to it. That is not caution, it is the law, and a company willing to go around it is not one you want holding your mother's record.
What we can do is give you something to hand them, and tell you what to ask for. It works whether or not they ever choose us, and the two guides below are free and have nothing to sign up for.
Ask her home about this →We are setting these up one at a time and speaking to every family, because the first ten will tell us things no amount of building will. Tell us about her and we will call you back.
What happens next
If she says no, that is the end of it. We will not ring her anyway, and we will not ask you to talk her into it.