Tuesday, April 16, 2013

CAREGIVER RELIEF ON THE WAY: UNFRAZZLE SEEKS TO DE-STRESS THE LIVES OF 65 MILLION AMERICAN CAREGIVERS


"Caregiving is a tremendous responsibility that not only impacts the lives involved, but the health of the caregiver as well. Unfrazzle is taking on this challenge. It is a simple app that could make a profound difference."



Matthew Holt, Co-Chairman
Health 2.0 Conference

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 65 million family caregivers, who on average spend 20 hours per week on their caregiving responsibilities. As the aging of the U.S. population continues to accelerate, this number will rapidly grow.

An estimated 20 million of these caregivers are in the "high burden" category. They spend an average 50 hours per week on their responsibilities, taking care of seriously impaired family members. These are a diverse group - caring for older people with Alzheimer's, children with Autism, friends or family with cancer, etc.

NEW POST: How to Create a Sleep Diary with Unfrazzle

Family caregivers are frequently overwhelmed by the never-ending torrent of their caregiving tasks. Organizing tasks and ensuring they are completed is enormously stressful. Sharing tasks with co-caregivers is oftecomplicated.

Many caregivers report feeling alone and unsupported - so much so, their own physical health and mental well-being suffers.

Determined to "uncomplicate and de-stress the lives of family caregivers," Rajiv Mehta, a veteran Silicon Valley technology developer, has created Unfrazzle, a smartphone app to help caregivers remember, keep track of, and share their caregiving tasks.

Kathy Kelly, Executive Director of the National Center on Caregiving and the Family Caregiver Alliance, who has been following the development of Unfrazzle, says:


"The caregiving community has a tremendous need for a smartphone app like Unfrazzle. I believe it has the potential to unburden caregivers from much of the stress of keeping track of all the tasks they need to do every single day. It will also make it possible for them to easily share some of these tasks with others."


Unique in the caregiving market, Unfrazzle focuses on easing the mental burden of everyday caregiving. It provides unprecedented flexibility to help users remember and track their day-to-day caregiving tasks; and connectivity, with rich privacy controls, with co-caregivers to keep everyone in-sync.

Unfrazzle users can invite family members and others to join their Unfrazzle network and they can assign different tasks to their co-caregivers.


"Unfrazzle takes a big mental load off your mind as you're not stressed about whether you're going to forget to do something," say Mehta, "and you'll always know what's going on with your family members." 


A more indepth look at how Unfrazzle works can be found on this blog:


The iPhone version of Unfrazzle is currently undergoing a rigorous beta-test and will be released in the Apple iTunes App store in May. An Android version will soon follow.

About the Unfrazzle team

Rajiv Mehta, founder and CEO, is a former NASA scientist with degrees from Princeton, Stanford and Columbia with experience leading innovation for Apple, Adobe, Interval Research and Symbol. A board member of Family Caregiver Alliance, and a leader in the Quantified Self movement, he created the apps Zume Life and Tonic, ground-breaking products that led to Unfrazzle.

Rajiv leads all Unfrazzle business, business developments and product development efforts, and participates extensively in various public forums and institutions.

David Bunnell, Media Chief, founder of PC Magazine, PC World, Macworld, BioWorld and numerous other media properties, is responsible for Unfrazzle's marketing, public relations and content development. He is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Computer Press Association and The New York Times Fellowship award.

Hugh Dubberly, award-winning designer and educator, whose firm Dubberly Design Office advises some of the world's leading technology, media and health companies. Hugh, who has worked closely with Rajiv for many years, is collaborating on the design and development of Unfrazzle.

Ashvin Radiya, PhD, is at the forefront of multi-platform, hybrid app development. His firm, AvantSoft, develops software and provides development training on cutting-edge technologies for leading corporations around the globe. His team is providing software development services for Unfrazzle.

About The Unfrazzle Company

The Unfrazzle Company is an online media and smartphone app development company. We address the growing needs of tens of millions of family caregivers. Our task management and coordination tools and educational support are designed to make life easier for them--easier to provide quality care for their loved ones, easier coordination with co-caregivers, and most importantly, easier to maintain a reasonable level of sanity and personal wellness in their own lives.

Unfrazzle has been presented at the San Francisco Health 2.0 Conference (October, 2012) and in the AARP EngAGE Pavillion at mHealth Summit (December, 2012).

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Unfrazzle is developed by Bhageera Inc, led by Rajiv Mehta. Bhageera Inc provides consulting services to help companies evaluate and commercialize radical innovation, with a focus on consumer health innovations.

Photos and screenshots available by request

Links:
                             
Background material:
The Future of Healthcare, Rajiv Mehta (slides)


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