When Giancarlo Paolillo found himself as the primary caregiver for his mother who lived two hours away, he sighed deeply. He felt the importance and deep desire to be present with her as life slowly transitioned for her – he would not have these moments again – but he also had a demanding career as a developer, a wife and two boys in school.
At one point, both he and his wife were primary caregivers of both their parents. Sherri, a successful HR executive, also traveled internationally for work.
The couple was stressed trying to coordinate and navigate it all, while giving sons Daniel and Evan the love, attention and support they needed while also caring for a newborn baby girl. They were totally burned out.
After their parents passed away, Giancarlo now had the time to put his developer skills to work to create an all inclusive caregiving app addressing the needs that he and Sherri had as family caregivers. Later they began to add features they wished they could have had to better, and more easily, communicate and coordinate between the two of them.
With heavy professional workloads and the emotional demands of family caregiving, the couple defined their points of burnout and relied on those to become the foundation of the Watch Our Own caregiving app. Here’s how it happened.
Who can relate?
Conflicting demands as you try to balance the needs of the care recipient, coworkers and employers, family members and yourself.
Cannot be at all places at same time
Need tools to manage remotely and get a “health pulse” on your care recipient as well as the rest of your family
Lack of control over money and resources and a lack of the skills needed to effectively manage a loved one's care.
What if there was a tool to help manage your family for the price of a cup of coffee a month?
What if we offer a family caregiving app for free?
Lack of privacy because caregiving may leave you with little time to be alone.
A calendar or schedule that allows you to plan time for yourself and requests other caregivers for assistance
Need to share the burden of caregiving but there are no tools to do so – opportunity!
If there is more than one caregiver, the ability to assign tasks to others
Role confusion, difficulty separating your roles as caregiver and as the parent, sibling or spouse of the care recipient.
Need tool to have “Guardians” or a group help you respond whenever necessary but allow you to have full management as the primary “Caretaker” who can take over when needed
Unreasonable demands placed upon a caregiver by other family members, or the person in which they are caregiving.
Tools needed to share responsibility even if others are too remote to physically be there but can monitor
Maintain open, transparent communications with others
If you are taking care of someone with special needs, how well are you managing your own family? Can you do both? Can you share the burden?
Need a tool to manage your care recipient and yet leverage it for others in your family who also need you. Build that social group with roles and responsibilities so you do not neglect the rest of your family.
Collect everyone’s key medical information in one spot for easy access
If something happens to our loved one, how will we track the “Events” and know when to contact EMS?
Build and patent a custom “Event Engine” that tracks loved one in real time for accidents or if they become disoriented and lost
Create ease of communicating, in app, with others
Make contacting EMS readily available within the app
The couple launched the first version of the app in 2020 and began slowly testing it while returning to their jobs and family life. In 2024, and with the advent of new technology, Giancarlo and Sherri decided it was time to invigorate the app to make it more comprehensive and dynamic for family caregivers.
Comments