On-Demand HOME HEALTHCARE
Smart Lifestyle Services for Independent Seniors
DUTY is a boutique app that offers senior care and senior lifestyle services. DUTY connects seniors, families, and caregivers to providers and a spectrum of services that they need to live independently and maintain physical and emotional health. DUTY is a one-stop service hub, a compass for navigating the complexities of senior home healthcare and other senior lifestyle needs.
DUTY connects seniors, families, and caregivers in a way that lowers costs, improves access, maintains dignity, addresses safety and raises the quality of life for everyone involved in our program. We are also very focused on improving the psycho-social health of seniors and offer a variety of opportunities for seniors to live well and continue to contribute to society. Loneliness is an epidemic among elderly people. We feel it is our duty to put a stop to elderly depression and diminished will-to-live due to a lack of engagement.
We create connections where seniors can get the care they need as well as someone they can mentor. Seniors tell us the kind of care they need and what they can teach. Caregivers bid on your request and you choose the one you want. Our app takes care of the rest to keep you connected!
DUTY gave me the opportunity to live the last years of life the way I wanted, not the way a nursing home wanted.
Our core business is shoppable, customizable home health care. Our users are able to easily coordinate services on their terms. Because we understand the emotional and physical toll care coordination and case management can cause patients and families, we also provide a complete suite of concierge services to eliminate daily hassle, allowing customers the breathing room for life’s other focuses.
Our DUTY app is free for seniors and families. Caretakers pay a 5% service fee to use our platform, but everyone keeps what they earn. There are no contracts or on-going commitments. Get the care you need on your terms, both physical and emotional.
To learn more, download our app or contact us with your questions.
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A recent article released by Time Magazine says that 1 in 3 seniors are lonely, according to the National Poll on Healthy Aging. The study was sponsored by AARP and surveyed 2000 Americans between 50 and 80 years of age.
If you have questions about DUTY, our terms of service, or about what we can provide, please visit our FAQ section inside the app. If you are unable to find the exact information you are looking for, you can contact our offices through any of these ways:
9 East Lockerman Street
Suite 3A
Dover, DE, 19901
262 Marvin Ave, Hackensack NJ, 07601
Wishing that someone would just do it for you? Our DUTY Pros will.
We understand how difficult it can be to coordinate care services, and so, we have developed a comprehensive suite of care coordination and case management services just for you.
These services are designed to take away the hassle of navigating the health, social, and behavioral care systems, allowing you to focus on other things.
We do everything from researching care options and scheduling appointments on your behalf, to providing transportation and companion services to and from appointments.
Contact us to learn more.
Online Marketplace – The DUTY shop gives seniors access to a range of home healthcare and senior lifestyle services. The app allows scheduled interviews before booking and tracks appointments, thereafter, to help patients and families find the most fitting talent.
Personalized Patient and Family-Centered Services – Families and patients work directly with qualified caregivers to customize service packages while taking charge of their plan of care to get the care they truly need.
Certified Caregivers – All of our caregivers are certified in their respective fields of providership and lifestyle service delivery and undergo continuous training and background checks. Caregiver profiles will show you their qualifications and which services they can provide.
Affordable Service – Our app reduces the expense and time costs associated with using healthcare facilities while offering high-quality care from the comfort of home. There are no contracts or membership fees to use our service, and our bidding system helps you secure the affordable care you need.
User-Friendly Technology – We’ve designed the DUTY app to make it easy for seniors and families to browse appropriate caregivers, bid on services, book appointments, track visits and enjoy easy payment options.
Psycho-social Care Delivery Model – We want to provide more than just physical care. Our Cross-generational Mentorship Program lets seniors feel useful to the next generation by teaching skills to their caretakers. Your loved one can pass their wisdom on.
Boutique Lifestyle Services – Our app will ping seniors and families tips and news on how to use our services and how to manage the changes of aging.
This isn’t just a worry-inducing statistic, is also a dangerous one. According to several studies, high levels of loneliness places seniors at a much greater risk for early death and makes them harder to rehabilitate from illnesses. Overall, people who experience long-term loneliness suffer from a range of health issues, including memory loss. Loneliness and a sedentary lifestyle can be just as minacious as smoking to someone’s health. So why are so many seniors lonely and what can we do about it?
The rise and fall of the extended family
Many of us remember our grandparents and great grandparents in the home growing up. They were often served as the disciplinarians, the teachers, the caregivers, and the storytellers while our parents went off to work. With the social stigma against living with your parents, even when they are aged, and the shrinking global marketplace creating employment opportunities for families at far distances, it is now common for children to live hundreds of miles away from a parent, only coming back for special occasions and serious health concerns.
In previous generations, before mass transport and seamless global borders, families lived together allowing for the commune of multiple generations in single homes. Seniors were able to pass on their knowledge to the rest of the family and feel useful in the home. In today’s America, very few families live this way. The absence of extended family structures leaves a gaping hole in the fabric of the senior aging experience and leaves seniors seriously vulnerable to loneliness and depression.
Making Friends When You’re Old
Another contributor to senior loneliness is that it can be hard for seniors to relate to younger generations. You may remember back in school when your parents introduced you to a bunch of other children you didn’t know and expected you to make friends. It was a struggle for most of us as kids. Elderly people face a similar struggle, but it is much more difficult.
Unlike children who most likely have not yet formed criteria in friendships, seniors have had a lifetime to develop likes, dislikes, preferences, and biases. Over the years, they have used those criteria to select the friends and the relationships they wanted to nurture and those that they wanted to eliminate. Once aging, retirement, relocation, time and death starts taking those friends and relationships away, it becomes increasingly more difficult for them to find replacements and much harder to find others that they can relate to with similar values.
Seniors also struggle with the physical, psycho-social, and mental challenges that come with aging. These challenges can make a senior unable, uncomfortable or afraid to form relationships with peers, even in settings where they are surrounded by other seniors such as nursing homes and care centers. Doubts regarding whether or not they will measure up, be liked, their life’s success, financial means, activeness and physical limitations, are all some obstacles impacting the senior psyche when making friends.
Sadly, we’ve also broken the traditional social dynamic between youth and seniors which was invaluable in establishing cross-generational relationships. Those cross-generational interactions can be stimulating, nurturing and coping for both seniors and youth and the even exchange of knowledge is healthy. With the absence of that dynamic and the emerging norm where, sadly, seniors are mocked, scorned, ignored, and seen as a burden instead of sources of wisdom and boons, seniors feel like they are at a disadvantage to maintain quality relationships even in their own families. They don’t understand how to relate to this generation which results in their giving up on trying to form relationships that would be nurturing and stimulating for them.
Unlike school, society doesn’t force adults into peer groups where they have to make friends or educate them on the nuances of the generation. For this reason, many seniors feel unsupported to put in the effort they had to as kids to make new relationships all over again.
Shifting The Dynamic
The traditional role of seniors in society has been to nurture and pass down what they have learned to younger generations. The value seen in their wisdom makes them feel useful to the community and gives them a sense of dignity. Sadly, this dynamic is broken in our society resulting in much need. We need to shift the dynamic closer to past traditions while embracing societal shifts.
Dr. Dionne Dixon, Founder of DUTY, senior lifestyle brand, believes that “the wealthiest place on earth is [not] the cemetery,” as stated by Dr. Miles Monroe and Les Brown. She believes the wealthiest place on earth is the intersection where seniors meet the youth to nurture, transfer wisdom, experiences, traditions, values, ethics, and ideas that were not developed. She believes that that intersection is richer than the cemetery, for the same reason investing your money is better than putting it under your mattress, because it has the potential to grow. In the absence of this richest place, the social dynamic, the intersection where seniors nurture youth and vice versa, seniors are at an increased risk for loneliness and depression among numerous other issues.
One of our missions at DUTY is troubleshoot the problem. We know that from a design and resource perspective, traditional health care services are challenged to address this issue. We know that there are very few ministerial bodies worldwide addressing the issue of loneliness in seniors and even fewer senior care delivery models that make this a priority. We know that addressing loneliness in seniors requires more than just giving them activities to do and offering a few rooms and game nights to meet with others.
Our service model encourages mentorships between seniors with skills and caregivers youths who want to learn. Our caregivers give seniors what they need to stay independent, seniors can share their knowledge and help someone else in return. We believe that this sharing can form the foundation of a quality relationship and to alleviate feelings of loneliness.
Also, there’s the chance of forming multiple relationships. Most seniors require multiple kinds of caregivers, so there’s lots of opportunity for this kind of skill-sharing. With effort and a little luck, this brand of cross-generational sharing prevents loneliness-induced depression in seniors and helps them enjoy their lives.
If you are caring for an elderly person and you can’t seem to connect with them, ask them about their past experiences. See if they can teach you something they learned. Be curious about the wisdom they hold. You might be surprised at the results, both in what you learn and how it improves the mood and health of your charge.
Are you looking for qualified health care providers for your agency? DUTY will collaborate with you to help with the logistical challenges of finding caregivers and help with administrative operational tasks. Focus on providing care for your seniors and families. Contact us for more details regarding our administrative services.
Independence – Give care without the interference from agencies and middlemen. Use your skills and manage your schedule on your own terms!
Continuous Education – DUTY offers ongoing training to qualified caregivers.
Low fee – DUTY takes 5% to use our platform. That’s all we charge. There are no contracts or term commitments.
Mentorship Opportunities – Get connected with seniors who have the skills and experience you need to grow in your career and personal life. Do your homework while offering care!
Access – We connect you with certified caregivers offering a wide range of home health care services including nursing care, transportation, shopping and nutrition, and more.
Psycho-social Care – Many seniors suffer from loneliness because they have no one to share their life skills with. The caregivers in our service are eager to learn from you. We want to create health care mentorships.
Safety and Quality – All of our caregivers have current background checks and up-to-date certifications. We also provide ongoing training to our caregivers.
Low Costs – DUTY does not charge seniors for using our app. Multiple caregivers will bid on your job and you can select the one that works best for your budget.
Real-time communication – Through DUTY, you and your family can talk to your caregivers in real-time.
Freedom – You choose the care you need, not the care that a nursing home or assisted-care facility thinks you need.
Current Events and News, Concierge Services, Shopping and Beauty,Transportation, Food and Nutrition, Exercise and Wellness, Tips and Ideas.
Non-Medical Care
Shoppable Quality of Life Services such as grocery shopping, light housekeeping, and similar duties
Worry-free, Video-Monitored Care Services for families who desire an aide to watch their independent relative without lifestyle interference
Medical Alert Service allowing independent seniors to use the app to notify the DUTY team that they need medical assistance without bulky devices, accessories, and tower-distance issues
Skilled Care (Medical and Therapeutic)
Recuperative Care and Long Term Care Services