Overwhelmed by all the technology options for caregivers? The Caregiver Tech Tool Finder from nonprofit VirginiaNavigator gives you independent, unbiased recommendations for the best caregiving apps, devices and other tech.
About the Caregiver Tech Tool Finder
VirginiaNavigator works with state and national partners, as well as experts on aging, to maintain a curated list of caregiving tech resources. We strive to find the best websites, tools and apps for caregivers and older adults.
In 2023, AARP began partnership with VirginiaNavigator around the tool. Bob Stephen, VP of Caregiving for AARP, summarizes our collaboration: “In an effort to continue to foster and cultivate innovation, particularly for the 48 million Americans who provide care for a loved one, AARP is pleased to collaborate with VirginiaNavigator on this one-of-a-kind tool. We know that family caregivers can often feel overwhelmed, which is why having support, like the Caregiver Tech Tool Finder, is crucial in helping to ease their challenges.”
Technology has the potential to make caregivers’ lives easier and help support the dignity and wellbeing of the people they care for. Useful tech includes things like medication reminders, caregiving coordination apps, remote monitoring, and smart home devices. But how do you know which tech options are right for you?
Try the Caregiver Tech Tool Finder! All offerings listed in the tool have received high ratings for being easy to use, meeting caregiver needs, having reasonable costs (if any purchases are required), and being recommended by family caregivers. VirginiaNavigator receives no compensation or other benefits for making recommendations.
Because caregiving technology changes so rapidly, we’re continuing to assess each tool and add new offerings as they come on the market. We invite companies and organizations to submit their products for review by our expert panel.
The Best Caregiver Apps and Tech for Alzheimer’s and Dementia
The Caregiver Tech Tool finder lists highly rated apps for helping caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. These apps include coaching for caregivers, resources for understanding dementia, and advice for dealing with stress.
Wearable tech can also be valuable for Alzheimer’s caregivers. In conjunction with Alz You Need, we’ve identified several innovative products that help monitor loved ones’ health and safety. Our picks for the best wearable personal tech for dementia include options that can track someone’s location with GPS, detect falls, and guard against nighttime wandering.
The Best Caregiver Apps for Wellness and Self-Care
Caring for a loved one who is ill or has a disability can be rewarding, frustrating, joyful and exhausting, all at once. The Caregiver Tech Tool Finder features highly rated apps that promote caregivers’ self-care, helping reduce anxiety and stress. These include guided meditations, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness techniques.
The Best Caregiver Apps for Coordinating Care
Time is a caregiver’s scarcest resource. Family coordination apps can help ease the burden by allowing family members, friends and others to manage competing caregiving demands. Apps can provide safe and secure options for sharing health news, coordinating help and organizing health information. Recommendations for daily caregiver resources can help with basic needs: making to-do lists, scheduling in-home care, understanding Medicare and more.
The Best Caregiver Apps for Healthy Aging
Technology can help us monitor health conditions and improve our overall wellness. In our curated list of the best apps for healthy aging, you’ll find apps designed to improve mental acuity and focus; apps that connect you to trustworthy health information and communities of people who share your conditions; and apps that make it easier to manage specific health challenges, like diabetes.
The Best Caregiver Apps for Medication Management
Helping a loved one follow a prescribed medication schedule is a tough task for many caregivers. Our panel selected the best apps for medication management, which include a variety of helpful tools: pill reminders and tracking, information on drug interactions, alerts when a prescription needs to be refilled, pill identification guides, and more.
The Best Smart Home Devices for Caregivers
Are you caring for someone who doesn’t live with you? Or do you work full time outside the home, as 62% of caregivers do? If you can’t always be with the person you’re caring for, technology can help monitor their health and safety. The smart home devices selected for the Caregiver Tech Tool Finder offer a variety of features and functions. These include sounding an alarm when a door is opened, calling for help in an emergency, monitoring medication, alerting a caregiver when a stove is turned on, and even helping locate misplaced glasses. Remote monitoring devices and companion technology can be helpful as well.
The Best Caregiver Apps for Social Connectedness
Loneliness is associated with serious, adverse health effects, including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and even death, according to the National Institute on Aging. Apps designed for social connectedness can restore social connections for caregivers and the people they care for by helping them find community resources and programs, communicate with friends and other caregivers, and even build a social fitness routine.