Memory Care Monitoring Rules

A Missouri bill has been introduced to regulate resident apartment monitoring by family and/or a designated person. https://www.house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB675&year=2019&code=R

Reviews of online articles are primarily posted by attorneys interested in abuse and neglect. This requires constant recording; storage; and retrieval by court order. A video clip, motion/sound triggered, camera, however, is not a total invasion of a resident’s privacy. This limits its use in litigation. 

There are many positive uses of monitoring cameras that need to be protected from poor legislation: easily sharing the status of the resident, ordering supplies, sharing that smile generated by, "Good morning Miss M____".

I propose the video clip camera be used only as a means of transforming time and place. If you cannot be present, you can still see and hear clips of events at a different time and place.

A video clip camera with two-way voice allows you to be present in real time. This allows caregivers and family to communicate with no additional person being present (you) in a work space that is often small and busy.

The Arlo video clip camera allows you up to seven days to review the video clips. They are then deleted from online storage. They remain in your memory just as if you had been at the scene. Only the time and place you viewed the scene have been changed. 

Apartment Monitor View

After six months of learning to use the Arlo 2 video clip camera, that was purchased to study the monarch butterfly caterpillars, I am of the opinion that it can only provide general information about apartment activities: times caregivers enter and leave, personal interactions (voice and motions) and the type of attention. This proved adequate for skin rash control last year.

The camera does not pick up specific details (bruises, skin rashes and treatments) unless it is within a couple of feet from the target area, with the correct lighting and viewing angle. To find where the monarch caterpillars hid at night will require a careful placement of the camera or a motion tracking camera. 

Apartment Monitor Mount

The camera in Apartment 133 was not a botheration to long term caregivers, who are familiar with my wife and me, as long as it rested on the top of my office desk beside the printer. Mounting it as a room monitor, high up on the wall, changed this.

Our rules have been: 1. I am the only one who reviews the video clips.  2. There is no downloading. 3. Arlo deletes the clips after seven days or I delete them earlier.  

The House Bill 675, 2019, should permit a few simple rules (4) to operate a video clip camera in a Memory Care apartment; that requires no additional work or attention by caregivers then the facility cameras do in public areas (which is none).

1.    Time of use.

The Missouri bill is patterned after Texas and Illinois. They allow unrestricted use of the camera by the family or designated person, without any participation by caregivers being necessary. 

Turning the camera on and off, from within the apartment, creates a break in trust with caregivers. The camera is your presence. It can be better than living in the apartment with the resident, as I have been doing.

 [A continuous camera does need a simple means to block or turn off recording for professional reasons. That person should be recorded, blocking or turning the camera off and again when unblocking or turning the camera on again, and by so doing assumes responsibility for the intervening events and for restoring camera operation.]

2. Restricted Viewing.

Only a family member or a designated person can view the video clips. This same person could be present in the room. However, viewing video clips is different than actually being there. Our culture shuns images of a number of personal and private things and actions. The viewer needs to accept the responsibility of what clip to view and what to skip (“to step outside for a minute or two”).

3. Apartment View.

The camera will be set to a general full apartment view. This captures the spirit of interaction between the resident and caregivers (what memory care is all about).


The camera is a personal, private bond between the viewer, the resident and the caregivers. All three can communicate live with two-way audio turned on and controlled by the family member (“Hello Agnes. Does M___ need more pull ups?

A facility cannot require viewing of any recorded or live apartment video clips. Both states hold a general full apartment view and a facility camera in totally separate categories: one is private and the other public. 

4. Information Usage.

No monitoring video clips are downloaded, stored, or shared in any way. There are no records for a court to request other than your viewing memory. 

Both states allow a facility to request, in an agreement with family and caregivers, to use information from the video clips for training and health purposes.

Where camera alert monitoring of “acceptable” falls (day and night) is not provided by the facility, a video clip motion detection camera can do this at a reasonable cost to the family for fall prone residents. A call to the concierge will beat the two-hour apartment check and get attention when understaffing occurs and/or when in-house communication fails.

MEMORY CARE FACILITY MARKETING 2020

You do not go home and leave Grandma behind locked doors at Blue Bird Haven. A video clip camera is available for each memory care apartment. Training on appropriate use and viewing is free. Yi-Fi camera operation is free.

Be present at any time and from any place whenever it is convenient. You become part of the caregiver team. We do the work. You can help tailor it to her needs.

     Take part and observe the events of the day that take place in your loved one's apartment. Enjoy peace of mind. All clips are deleted after seven days or you delete them sooner.

[Etiquette: Please do not interrupt caregivers when performing a task.  Task interruptions may result in the loss of your camera deposit.]