A recent study found that 96% of over-75s would prefer to continue residing in their own home rather than moving in with a relative or to a care home.

But what if you’re concerned about your elderly loved one’s wellbeing as they continue living independently? When seniors have long-term health conditions like arthritis or high blood pressure, it’s reasonable to be concerned about the risk of dangerous events like falls or strokes. You might worry that your older loved one could experience a crisis while you remain unaware.

An elderly monitoring camera can help to ease these worries as a part of a plan to help a senior age in place safely.

Which options are best? In this blog, we’ll discuss five highly rated cameras for monitoring elderly people at a range of price points. Read on to learn more!

First, a note about consent

It goes without saying that in-home cameras aren’t for everyone. But if your elderly relative agrees to use them and is keen to have the peace of mind that cameras offer, they can be a great choice.

What if your older loved one has dementia and may not be able to consent to the use of cameras in their home? It’s best to review the Mental Capacity Act if you’re considering making the decision about cameras for them.

Choosing the right elderly camera monitor for you

Once you’ve made the decision to opt for camera monitoring, there are many factors to consider…

Do you want an indoor or outdoor camera?

If you want to be aware of what’s happening as your elderly loved one goes about their daily tasks, an indoor camera might be best. However, if you’re concerned about slips and falls on an icy doorstep or on tricky stairs, or if you’re worried about wandering in a relative with dementia, an outdoor camera watching the front door area can be helpful.

What other functionalities do you need?

You can find cameras to monitor elderly people at all price points. Perhaps all you need is a video feed, in which case a simple camera might be great. However, many cameras also offer fancier functions, ranging from night vision to motion detection and more.

Do you need a camera specifically designed for the elderly?

There are certainly elderly monitoring cameras out there that are specifically marketed toward seniors and their families. However, many other home monitoring cameras have the same functionalities – so you don’t necessarily have to feel limited to products that specifically say they’re for the elderly.

Keeping these questions in mind, here are a few highly reviewed options…

TP-Link Tapo C200 Pan/Tilt Wi-Fi Smart Indoor Cam CCTV

Let’s start small. At only £21.99, the TP-Link Tapo C200 is one of the lowest-cost cameras out there, but it packs a lot of functions into its small design. It offers:

Motion detection alerts sent to your phone
Night vision
Tilting and turning abilities so that no part of a room is missed
An audio connection so that you can talk to and hear someone near the camera.

And this small camera has five stars and over 1,600 reviews on the Argos website!

EZVIZ C6N Pan/Tilt Smart Indoor Security Camera CCTV

The £32.99 EZVIZ C6N is quite similar to the Tapo, with a little more functionality. It gives you:

Infrared night vision
Automatic recording and alerts to your phone triggered once motion is detected
Automatic movement tracking and panning and tilting of the camera
Internal speaker and microphone for conversing with someone within 5 metres of the camera

This little camera offers five times the memory capacity of the Tapo, useful if you're looking to keep recordings. For example, in case you need footage of events like epileptic seizures to share with a doctor.

Olivia5 Indoor Rotating Elderly Monitoring Camera

Here’s a £56.00 option that’s marketed specifically as an elderly camera monitor. The Olivia5 has the capacity to rotate nearly a full 360 degrees as well as moving its focus up and down, ensuring the entire space is covered.

It also offers:

Motion tracking that triggers alerts
The ability to configure time frames in which alerts are sent – for example, only during the night
Two-way audio
Night vision
HD recording or streaming.

As you can see, this product has a lot of great functions – but it’s not actually that different from cameras that aren’t described specifically as cameras to monitor elderly people.

Ring Stick Up 3rd Gen Cam Battery CCTV

We’ve all heard of Ring camera doorbells – in fact, they’ve helped create quite a few viral videos over the years! But the Ring line of cameras offers much more than doorbells. For example, the Ring Stick Up 3^rd Gen camera is a product that works both indoors and outdoors. It can also be mounted to the wall if needed.

At £89.00, this product is a little more costly. Its functions include:

Motion detection notifications
Microphone and speaker
Night vision with colour
HD Video
Video recording

Ring Whole Home Security Pack

Finally, here’s the luxury option, also from Ring. A 2022 “Which?” magazine best buy for burglar alarms, the Ring Whole Home Security Pack includes:

A Ring doorbell
An indoor camera
A burglar alarm with keypad
Two motion detectors
Two contact sensors for doors and windows.

At £349.99, this choice doesn’t come cheap. However, if you’d like to combine an elderly monitoring camera with other safety tech to protect an older person living alone, this could be a great way to manage many different devices with one app.

Incorporating your elderly monitoring camera into an elderly safety plan

As you can see, using cameras to monitor elderly people can do a lot to provide peace of mind. If you’d just like to check in and see how your elderly loved one is doing, you can do that. And if you’d like to be alerted if your older relative – or someone else – is moving about at night, for example, that’s also a possibility.

But cameras do naturally have limitations. For example, while most of these cameras allow you to speak and listen through the camera, the camera’s internal microphone may not pick up audio that’s not close by.

A talking pendant alarm ensures that’s not a problem. It provides 2-way audio coverage no matter where an older person is in the house. At just the touch of a button, the wearer can speak through the pendant to either an expert monitoring centre or a nominated phone contact. This can be invaluable if a senior begins feeling unwell and isn’t able to get up and go to a phone or the camera.

Moreover, it’s generally considered appropriate to restrict camera usage to common areas such as living rooms or kitchens. So how can you ensure peace of mind about falls occurring in places that aren’t covered by cameras, like bathrooms?

In this case, a fall detection alarm can be a perfect complement to an elderly monitoring camera. This type of alarm, worn on the wrist or as a pendant, automatically senses that its wearer has fallen and calls for help without any input from the wearer – no matter what room the wearer is in.

For seniors with a wide range of conditions, ranging from poor balance and arthritic stiffness to epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, this alarm provides the reassurance that no matter the cause of a fall, an older person will never be without help if it happens.

Keeping your elderly loved ones safe through personal alarms

Tech can provide amazing supports to help keep older people residing in their own homes safely for longer. For one, cameras to monitor elderly people can allow relatives to check in at any time – and feel reassured that they’ll be notified about unexpected activity.

A personal alarm for the elderly works perfectly with monitoring alarms to ensure that an older person is never without protection in case of falls or crises not caught by cameras. At SureSafe, our personal alarms are designed specifically to meet the needs of the elderly – and that’s why we’ve earned 4.8 stars on reviews.io from our many happy customers.

If you’d like to chat with us more about our wide variety of elderly personal alarms, feel free to give us a call 0800-112-3201. We’ll be happy to talk about all the different options available to keep your older loved ones safe. You can also reach out to us via live chat or request a call back.