https://www.straitstimes.com/life/new-emergency-alert-system-for-seniors-in-distress-helps-their-adult-children-too
2024-06-15
SINGAPORE – While Mr Chen Jer Yaw and his team were developing an emergency alert system for seniors in distress for the past five years or so, the 55-year-old was also dealing with his elderly parents’ health crises.
His eldercare solutions firm BOP, which was founded in 2023, is officially launching its BOP Button on June 21. BOP stands for Buddy of Parents.
Seniors facing a health emergency can press the red button on this wireless device, which can be mounted on walls in bathrooms, bedrooms and other areas of the home.
A brief audio recording of the environment is activated, and elderly residents speak to a professional trained in triage from a 24-hour response centre, who will assess the situation and call the emergency services if necessary.
At the same time, up to four next of kin will be notified of the activated alert via the BOP mobile app. The launch price is $99 with a $20 monthly subscription for the service ( buddyofparents.com ).
Mr Chen, executive director of BOP, says: “The conviction to bring this product to consumers comes from a personal understanding of how important an immediate emergency response is.”
In recent years, he experienced a “sense of helplessness” when he was not present when his mother had a stroke and when his dementia-stricken dad fell down the stairs.
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Mr Chen is also senior vice-president for the Internet of Things at iWOW Technology, which made the TraceTogether tokens used in Singapore during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company, of which BOP is a subsidiary, also supplied the wireless Alert Alarm System that has, since 2019, been installed for thousands of seniors living in public rental flats. The seniors can activate a similar alert button placed in accessible parts of their flat, which is linked to a round-the-clock emergency hotline and nearby Active Ageing Centres.
Mr Chen says going through the health emergencies of his loved ones – when other family members turned to one another before thinking of calling an ambulance – deepened his team’s conceptualisation of the BOP Button, a process that started in 2021.
“It is predicated on the premise that the next of kin is key to supporting his or her loved one who may be alone at home,” says Mr Chen, who is married to a 47-year-old teacher. They have two sons, aged 15 and 17. He himself is the eldest of four sons.
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In December 2023, Mr Chen and his general practitioner brother, Dr Chen Jer Shih, 53, were in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on a trip with their families when their mother, 84-year-old Khoo Siew Hoon, called the latter, saying she did not feel well.
The doctor could tell from the phone call that their mother was having a stroke and asked Mr Chen to call an ambulance. Alarmed, Mr Chen wondered how to access emergency services from another country but dialled the Singapore country code before keying in 995.
It worked, and the ambulance arrived at their parents’ home within minutes.
There have been other occasions, involving falls, when Mr Chen felt an acute helplessness, thinking in that instant, “What can I do?”
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In 2012, his younger son, then a pre-schooler, fell and started bleeding from the head. His wife stanched the blood and called Mr Chen, who rushed home immediately and took the child to a clinic.
In 2020, Mr Chen’s 87-year-old father, Dr Chen Ti Wen, a retired associate professor of biology at National University of Singapore, fell down the stairs in his three-storey house, where he lives with his wife and two domestic helpers.
Madam Khoo, a retired teacher, called Mr Chen and Dr Chen Jer Shih, who arrived first and performed first aid on their father, who was lying in a “pool of blood”, before the ambulance came, says Mr Chen.
Mr Chen realised that this “dilemma”, where family members are called instead of the emergency services in times of crisis, may be a common one even if it is far from ideal.
Besides accessing medical help quickly, the BOP Button is designed for the immediate notification of close relatives, a feature absent from the Alert Alarm System in rental flats, which Mr Chen was also involved in developing, he says.
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“Working adult children need an immediate and effective way of responding to their loved ones in personal emergencies, and the current means of getting help – such as mobile phones and tablets – may be technically onerous for seniors in urgent need,” he says.
The name, Buddy of Parents, “reflects our care for our parents”, Mr Chen says, adding that he hopes BOP can help give adult children some “peace of mind” in Singapore’s ageing society.
His father displayed symptoms of dementia as early as 2019. A man driven by curiosity and “an openness to finding solutions”, Dr Chen Ti Wen inspired all four of his sons to pursue the sciences at tertiary level, says Mr Chen, who studied mechanical engineering at Nanyang Technological University.
His father once asked Mr Chen when he was 12 years old to build a boat for a small lake at Nanyang University, where he worked. Their family lived in staff lodgings there and Mr Chen found a large styrofoam box. His father pushed him off in the makeshift boat; fortunately, it supported the child’s weight.
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Dr Chen once ran an experimental farm rearing frogs, teaching Mr Chen and his brothers the scientific names of frogs and toads, which they went searching for after it rained.
At the age of 80, Dr Chen gained a second doctorate in Christian ministry from a theological college. But he is now bedridden and can no longer speak.
In the early stages of dementia, Dr Chen knew he was losing his memory, says Mr Chen. The elder Chen – who used to drive his family during holidays to Canada, Japan and France – took three hours for a half-hour drive home.
“He would go to a petrol kiosk to ask for directions, then drive to the next petrol kiosk to ask for directions again. When I finally told him, ‘Papa, you shouldn’t drive any more’, he was really sad. He said, ‘I’ve driven you everywhere, but now you tell me I cannot drive.’
“I was at a loss for words,” recalls Mr Chen.
He adds: “There was a period of time when we learnt to be parents. Now it’s time to learn how to be an adult child caring for elderly parents.”
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