A House For the Elderly

• July 20th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

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A new option may soon be available for families that have elderly relatives in need of care, but do not want to send them to a nursing home.

N2Care has developed the MedCottage, “a 12-by-24-foot prototype filled with biometric technology that would allow a family and health-care providers to monitor the condition of an aging or disabled relative,” according to The Washington Post.

The MedCottage is a modular home that is designed to be placed on a relative or caregiver’s property. The interior measures out at just 288 square feet, but the home is equipped with technology that monitors vital signs, filters the air for contaminants, and provides medication reminders via computers. Sensors in the home indicate if the occupant falls and webcams make communication easy.

The Post notes that there are some issues with the MedCottage, specifically local zoning laws that may prevent the home from being placed on property where another home exists and that “the setup could lead to cases of neglect involving elderly or disabled occupants of the dwellings.” Nevertheless, Reverend Ken Dupin, who created the cottage, told The Post that full scale production could begin on January 1, 2011.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_house_for_the_elderly/2282.