A partnership between a LeadingAge-member life plan community and a technology company is combining the latter’s smart-home platform with a wide range of at-home services, with potential to connect the greater community and others to services, content, and care.

Fellowship Senior Living, a nonprofit provider based in Basking Ridge, NJ, and Livindi launched the collaboration, Fellowship Connected Living powered by Livindi, in 2021. Livindi is an in-home connected care platform allowing communication, monitoring, and assistance in delivering care services.

According to Elizabeth Fandel, senior vice president, home and community-based services and special projects at Fellowship Senior Living, the idea is to use technology to allow affordable provision of services to older adults remaining in their own homes. The idea grew in part out of her Action Learning Project, focused on technology in caregiving, while a Fellow of the Larry Minnix Leadership Academy in 2018.

Improving Community-Based Services

The organization has a continuing care without walls program–Fellowship Freedom Plans–and provides home care with its Fellowship Helping Hands program. Fandel says the partnership with Livindi helps develop quality home-based services that minimize the number of in-person hours the client has to pay for: “Most people need minimal help. That might be help with a shower, or help with laundry if it’s in the basement. We have a two-hour minimum if you sign up to Livindi. The professional caregiver, who we call a personal health coordinator, will come in and work with the client four days a week and leave.”

The subscription package includes the services of a “Personal Health Navigator,” a Fellowship Senior Living employee (an LPN) who coordinates care needs and advocates for the client. The navigator can help in scheduling appointments or arranging transportation.

Concierge services can connect clients to vetted services providers, and telehealth options will allow virtual visits with physicians and monitoring of health conditions. The Livindi system also enables easy communication, including video calls, for clients.

Clients receive a package including:

• A 10-inch Android tablet preloaded with the Livindi app and a stand.
• Three proprietary, all-in-one sensors that include motion detectors, humidity and temperature sensors, accelerometers, and door sensors.
• Alert buttons.

Rick Watkins, co-founder and chief technology officer for Livindi, says the passive sensors, which can be mounted on a refrigerator, in the bathroom, and on the door, allow the system to collect data to build a profile of the client’s activities. Artificial intelligence features can help flag unexpected behaviors and alert caregivers and health navigators to check on their loved one. The system also can be used to set automated medication reminders.

Fellowship Senior Living also makes its content library available via Livinidi. The library includes access to the organization’s resident classes in exercise and nutrition, live-streamed events such as club meetings and other campus activities, and more. Performances from the Fellowship Cultural Arts Center, which houses the organization’s 257-seat theater, will also be made available. The complete content library should be available to clients by September 2022.

The terms of the partnership give Fellowship Connected Living powered by Livindi exclusive marketing rights for the Livindi system within New Jersey. In addition, Fandel says the system’s characteristics make it a product that could be rolled out to aging services providers across the country, perhaps as white label products with background services provided by Fellowship Connected Living.

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