This post is sponsored by BLACK + DECKER. All opinions and statements are my own.
Pria is about a foot tall, weighs around 5 pounds, has sparkly blue eyes and a friendly voice. She’s a voice-enabled table top robot serving as a companion for anyone who could use a system to help organize their medications or medications for another family member. Pria by BLACK + DECKER is a personal medication management assistant that could help a family caregiver with some of the health-related responsibilities they have for their care recipient.
When Jason’s mom was alive, he had to closely manage her medications from a distance. She had lung cancer and he was her primary caregiver. His mom used to manage her medications herself. Until in her last year, she was tending to over-medicate resulting in going through her medications faster than what was allowed for a prescription refill. Jason’s solution was to purchase a regular lock box and visit his mom daily to portion out her medications. A tough routine for many months for my husband who worked full-time, had a wife (me!) who was also a primary caregiver for her mom at the time, a dog who needed to be fed and walked, and two active teenagers.
Pria could have been a huge help for my husband in this situation.
Pria may also be the right fit for my brother, Tom.
Tom is my older brother and he has a developmental disability. He takes daily medication which helps with his behavior and for his heart. His preference is to be as independent as possible. As siblings, we care about his health and when he is not taking his behavioral medications regularly we all pay the price since his behavior becomes aggressive and impulsive. He loves technology so having Pria help him take his medication would be enjoyable for him. And, the family would have the benefit of having easy access to his analytics without the perceived nagging.
Let me share with you a bit more about what Pria is and what she can do.
Unboxing Pria
First, I want to show you all the pieces that come with purchasing Pria. View this unboxing video to see what all is included.
Setup Pria In an Hour or Less
It took me about 45 minutes to set up Pria. She needed some time to learn a bit about me and the supplements and prescriptions I needed help managing. The very first setup task is to connect Pria to the internet. Next, you’ll help Pria recognize the face and voice of the person who is taking the medication. To make initial setup easier if you are setting up Pria for your care recipient, I suggest you set up Pria in the home of the person who will be taking the medication and have this person nearby.
Another part of the setup is downloading the Pria app on the smartphone of the individual using Pria, and their caregiver(s). Each contact will receive a notification should the primary Pria user forget to take their meds. A nice feature of Pria is individuals can stay connected with their app contacts using two-way video calling.
Setup length of time will depend greatly on how many pills you are loading into Pria’s pill chute or wheel. I have six morning pills that vary in size from a huge gel Fish Oil supplement to a small NP Thyroid prescription. Pria can store up to 28 medication doses (each dose can hold from 4-12 pills, depending on their size). I choose to load Pria with 28 morning medication doses, but I could have just as easily done 14 morning and 14 evening doses. Pria talked me through the medication loading wizard to fill up the 28 compartments.
Watch Pria in Action
Watch this video for a brief demonstration of Pria and some of the amazing things she helps me do.
- Real-time notifications – Each app contact will receive reminders when a dose is missed or when medications are running low
- Check-in functionality – Interact with your care partners by answering the health-focused questions such as ‘Did you drink at least two glasses of water?’, ‘Did you record your blood pressure measurement’, ‘Did you have something to eat?’, ‘Have you been outside today?’.
- Adherence reports – see which does have been taken or missed
- Drop-in functionality – Unlimited video calling between you and your loved ones
- Unlimited Pria Contacts – Share information with your care team
- Information – Pria will answer questions about the weather, calories in a particular food item, etc.
Family caregivers need options to reduce the worry factors, maintain quality relationships, and reduce the workload. Pria by BLACK + DECKER could be the perfect fit for a developmentally disabled adult or aging parent who requires monitoring or could make a great companion for anyone who enjoys using gadgets in their daily lives.
Good news for the Happy Healthy Caregiver community! Use promotional code HAPPYHEALTHY50 in the checkout process at okpria.com and save $50!
