ATU778 – SafeInHome with Mark Prohaska and Suzanne Raymond

Hi, I’m Suzanne Raymond, and I’m the remote supports consultant for Northwest Indiana.

And hello, my name is Mark Prohaska. I’m the district manager for SafeinHome here at Indiana, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to episode 778 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on April 24th, 2026. On today’s show, we’re welcoming Mark and Suzanne from SafeinHome to tell us all about SafeinHome and the ways they’re helping individuals with independence. We also want to take just a moment to thank everyone who attended our open house this week for AT Awareness Day on April 22nd. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Listeners today, we are excited to welcome Suzanne and Mark from Safe & Home to tell us all about SafeinHome and the great remote supports and other things that it is able to offer, and we are looking forward to learning more.

Suzanne, Mark, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

Yeah, we are excited to have you as well. Before we get into talking about SafeinHome, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves?

Yeah, sure. I’ll start and then turn it over to Suzanne. But my name is Mark Prohaska. I’m the district manager for SafeinHome, helping basically our team here in Indiana, as well as in other states such as Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota. Our reach is expanding throughout the country, so very exciting times, and just happy to be here and be able to help people better understand how we help support people.

Awesome. And Suzanne?

Yes. So I am a former Medicaid waiver case manager and I’ve always been fascinated by technology. And I decided to make the jump to remote supports, and Mark is my manager, and I’m super excited to get to know you guys and continue talking about what we can offer to the individuals in the community.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, you’ve made an amazing kind of segue. So, I guess, start us off with big picture, what is SafeinHome?

All right. Well, that’s a loaded question, Josh.

Yes, it is. Well, I figured this will fill most of the time and I can just sit back.

Yeah. At the heart of it all, SafeinHome is what’s called a remote supports company. And many people are like, “What is that?” They’ve heard the terminology. They’re not fully sure, et cetera, et cetera. So really what we do is help support individuals in their own homes, their own living environments, wherever that may be. And we do that with a trained support staff, but we do it a little bit differently than the traditional model, whereas you have somebody in the home with an individual. Those people are great. We love DSPs and we partner with a lot of different providers around Indiana and in other states.

But what we do is utilize technology as a way to connect one person to our trained staff who are there to support as needed. We’re trying to be as low touch as possible as well, which enables individuals to gain as much control, autonomy, just independence throughout their day. And so that’s at the heart of truly what we do on a day in, day out basis.

Nice. And when we talk about remote supports, and I must admit, I used to fall into this trap as well, everyone thinks of cameras, and I know that cameras can be part of it, but what kinds of technology is used in remote supports?

Yeah, so that’s a great question, and I’m glad that you even see the difference. So from a SafeinHome perspective, the way we look at remote supports, it’s not about watching people. I think many people would agree that’s maybe a little creepy. That’s not independence. That’s not the things that people want. So if we do utilize cameras, those are typically in scenarios where the individual has insisted that this would help them meet a specific need. So for example, it might be visitor safety, where I know for a lot of us, if somebody comes to our home, we actually duck and cover. We’re hiding. Those interactions can speak of high anxiety for individuals. So a video doorbell and outdoor camera, those might be great tools that an individual can utilize and utilize in combination with our remote support staff who are there to help through those situations if somebody comes to the door.

So I think you had brought it up, so I wanted to add into that. Cameras are not about watching individuals. They are about though helping provide support in many different ways if certain protocols align that it’s then time to turn on a camera to assist someone. So that’s the first part. And then you asked about in terms of additional technologies. At SafeinHome, we’re using over 90 different pieces of technology, and I won’t bore you with a list or a litany or anything like that. And we get those questions though, and people want to know, “What are you using? What technology?” And typically how we answer those questions, it is so person-centered and so person-specific on what technology might be incorporated to connect our team of staff with the individual. It’s all about having those deeper dive conversations with someone and truly getting a better understanding again of as you look at your day, where are those points in time where you need a little extra support?

But one, you may not want to have somebody in your home with you at that certain time of the day, or you may not need somebody right there with you. And so then from that aspect, after we dive a little bit deeper, again, we start to identify some of those different areas in which people are typically looking for some added support. So visitor safety is a huge area. Kitchen safety. Independence means a lot of different things for a lot of different people. And so when it comes to cooking, to eating, to dinnertime, lunchtime, whatever it might be, that’s a huge opportunity where people are striving for greater independence, autonomy.

We’ve got stories where individuals who have had staff with them in their home at lunchtime, let’s say, for 20 years, well, the staff has helped prepare their lunch for 20 years, and the staff has assumed that they love a certain type of sandwich. Given the opportunity to have maybe a little bit more independence and take control over the sandwich making, we’ve seen and heard stories where individuals then what? They decide to make a whole different type of sandwich and that surprises everybody.

And so I’m going a little bit off base of what you asked, but again, if there’s a situation from a kitchen, from a dinner, lunch, breakfast, those type of situations, we have different types of technology. We have automatic stove shutoffs. We have stove temperature sensors. We have water leak sensors. We have different sensor technology that can alert our remote support team that something is out of the ordinary. The stove has kicked itself off without the human touch. So then it’s a protocol, check in with the individual to get an understanding of what just happened. And typically, those are things where someone gets distracted. I’m raising my hand if you can see me because I’ve done this the very same thing and I’ve got my support system, my wife who, “Hey, did you leave the stove on?”

And so we can provide very similar support if we’re alerted to something potentially happening. And then for our staff to come on and say, “Hey.” And we can do this in many different ways in terms of engagement with individuals with different tablet technology, wearable technology, other options where we can then simply click a button, say hello to someone and say, “Hey, your stove, it just turned itself off.” “Well, I just got distracted by my favorite TV show,” that sort of thing. So that’s part of that.

For others, it might be some other needs that they have in terms of… A lot of people are fall risks. So there’s different technology that can be incorporated. Again, it’s not watching someone, it’s not any of that, but it is using typically motion sensor type of technology. We usually combine that with some sort of chair or bed sensor technology as well that’s very uninvasive. People barely even know that these devices are in the home when they’re installed. They’re typically very small. They don’t have to do anything to initiate anything. They’re there. They are operational and it’s our support team that are actively looking for certain things, again, alerts to occur that would then say, “Hey, let’s go check in with Josh and make sure that he’s okay that he possibly hasn’t fallen. And if he has, let’s take appropriate action to call emergency support or paid backup or mom or dad or neighbor,” et cetera.

So those are just a few pieces of technology, I guess. There’s carbon and smoke detectors that can also contact remote supports. The beauty of that is our support staff are 24/7. We’re not sleeping. We’re available. We’re active. We’re actively monitoring all of these things. So it doesn’t replace an in home smoke detector, but it adds to it in the sense that, “Hey, if something happens in the middle of the night, we’re going to be able to help respond and then take action again to make sure that if it’s needed, emergency personnel are there, that the individual is leaving the premises,” et cetera, et cetera. So I hope that answers your question there, Josh. I know I went off on a five-minute tangent.

No, no, you’re perfect. And thanks for not mentioning all 90 because then I would’ve had to dig in and figure out what each one is. And we may get back into that, but you brought up how everything is personalized to each individual and what they need, what they’re trying to accomplish. And I know when you start working with someone, you do an assessment. Can you tell me what the assessment looks like? How does that go? We don’t have to do the full one of course here, but just how does that conversation go and how does that work?

No, it’s a great question. And I would say, Josh, stop me if I talk too long because I go off on these tangents. But no, it’s truly about… Once Suzanne, myself, anybody on our team here in Indiana learns of somebody needing some additional support or they’re looking to achieve some certain goals when it comes to independence and control over their life, we then set up a consultation where we meet with them. Typically, it’s within the individual’s home. That’s the ideal place to do that. It really helps us get a really good understanding of what the home environment looks like in terms of what might be something that would really benefit them. But if somebody is like, “Hey, I don’t know you. I don’t know you, Mark. I don’t know you, Suzanne quite yet. I don’t trust you. I don’t know.” We get it. That’s all about developing those relationships.

At times, we do those virtually. And when we hold those meetings, they’re really about getting to know the individual and truly what their day-to-day looks like, asking questions about what things excite them throughout the day, and maybe what are some of those challenges that prevent them from accomplishing certain goals. We bring together whoever that individual would like to be a part of those meetings. So whether that’s a case manager, typically, if it’s a family member, if it’s another loved one, if it’s their in-home provider who may be helping them at other times during the day. We want to bring all those people together that the individual desires, and then really, again, try to get to know the individual as much as possible.

And then at times, those conversations may even go beyond that initial conversation. If we’re looking to dive a little deeper, gain a little bit more trust from the individual, then typically they’re like, “Yeah, come on out and let’s see the environment and get a better understanding.” So that’s typically about an hour in length in terms of, again, just getting to know and understand.

And from that standpoint, we’re able to put together what we call a proposal. We put that in writing and we work on that. We try to work on that as quickly as possible. We know if the individual has expressed such an interest to come talk with us and meet with us that, hey, they’re looking for some help and some support. And so we want to honor that request and try to work on their behalf as quick as possible. And so we put together a proposal that includes everything that they were desiring in terms of their goals and what their day-to-day looks like.

And then we propose, again, maybe the different technology, the tools in which we review… The way we look at the technology as the tool to connect, again, our staff with them. And then again, any costs and that sort of thing are also a part of that. So we typically work with the case manager and the different Medicaid waivers in every state that we’re in to help in terms of getting that authorization so that we can then move forward with getting things in place as quickly as that individual desires.

Nice. And you brought up family members, case managers, things like that. I know they’re involved a little bit in the opening process. Now, are they also involved… Let’s say there’s alerts. Something’s wrong. Something’s different. Are they alerted as well? Are they alerted by the remote support staff? Or how does that component work? Or how involved, I suppose, are they after the initial setting up of goals and everything?

That’s a great question. And so a lot of what you just said is really up to the individual. Who does the individual want to be also made aware of certain scenarios having had occurred? And for some people, they want multiple people to know that, “Hey, we had to contact the fire department because of a possible CO2 incident.” Or that, “Hey, there was a visitor at the home that shouldn’t be there.” It’s really dependent on the individual and the rest of the team on what makes the most sense. And so it’s truly, again, person-centered in that regard.

For some, it is. Case managers are heavily involved in helping people live their best life. And so many times case managers are a part of that. Many times they’re not. And so really, truly just depends on that individual and setting up the protocols. “If this happens, this happens.” Obviously our team is taking action and then we’re also notifying others. “Who do you want us to notify?” So asking that individual during that consultation who they would like us to make a part of that team.

Cool. No, that’s perfect. That’s perfect. I like how they… It sounds like the individual controls the… Well, everything, the conversation, the supports and everything from the beginning. So I really like that because I know I might want a family member or something to know if I’m unsafe or like you said, if somebody’s at the door. I don’t need them to know that I went to the kitchen and got something to eat last night at 2:00 AM. You know what I mean? I don’t need them to have every single thing. There’s no real independence in that. So that’s great that there is that kind of flexibility and everything.

Mark, I am going to press you just a little bit here on the technology. Tell me just a couple of maybe cool pieces of technology that could be put in there that maybe people might not think of in the remote support realm or maybe something that people might not think of things that could help folks.

Gotcha, gotcha. Well, I’ll give an example here, and I’ll try not to go too long with it. We’ve got an individual that we’re currently supporting. One of the, I guess, barriers in which as he lives alone is from ability to sense cold and hot temperatures. It’s something that his system doesn’t readily do very easily. And so especially when seasons are changing like they are right now, he may still have the heat on as we get into April and May, and obviously the temperatures outside are changing. So his home temperature may go above 80 degrees, which could be a safety issue. And so for that individual, we have temperature sensors throughout the home that help alert our team if a temperature goes above 80 degrees, or in this case below 60 degrees. In either case, it prompts us to reach out, just have a discussion with the individual, get a better understanding of maybe what’s happening within the household, and then have them go over… They’re perfectly capable of handling, they just don’t know that it’s that warm so they’ll typically go over to the thermostat and make the necessary adjustments.

And again, it’s such a low touch. These are small little pieces of technology that you would never know exist unless you’re looking for them. And in this case, provide such an avenue to keep him safe, comfortable, et cetera, in his own home. So that’s one piece of technology I think that people may not think of. Some of the other types of devices, we have quite a few different wearable devices that have many different capabilities and again, would take too long for this podcast. But again, based on the individual and what their needs are. So we do have some people, for example, that may decide to leave their home at 3:00 in the morning. And our job as remote supports is not to prevent them from doing that.

And we’re also not telling people, “Don’t leave your house, Josh.” Instead, we may use technology like a wearable device where we get an alert that, “Hey, the front door has opened and it’s 2:00 in the morning. That’s not normal for Josh so let’s check in with him.” And we’ll call his wearable device. We can also access… And again, this is based on the person, but those have geolocation features as well so we can see that he is outside the home, “Hey, Josh, what’s going on? Have you decided to go for a walk?” “Well, yeah, I decided to go to the grocery store. I needed to get some more milk.” That’s where instead of us saying, “No, don’t do that.” Because again, it’s not our place to do so. But we may say, “Hey, have you checked your refrigerator? Because there may very well be some milk in there.” “Oh, no, I haven’t checked that yet.”

So helping to redirect and ultimately, if Josh decides to continue on, great, we may have protocols just to let others know. And again, that’s something that would’ve been predetermined by Josh, but it might be letting a loved one or a neighbor like, “Hey, just want to let you know, Josh has decided to go for a walk.” It’s fairly late, just everybody’s aware that he’s out and about. So yeah, a lot of different wearable devices, those temperature sensors, water leak sensors are also something for some people we help support, they may consistently wash their hands type of thing and leave water running. And so something like that could really help prevent further issues within the home if alerted sooner than later type of thing.

Definitely. And I love, Mark, the story about the temperature sensors because I love that they call. I’m pretty sure probably remotely they could just change the thermostat, but they don’t. They call and the individual takes the onus to do it because it’s not that they need help with the thermostat, they need help knowing they need to go to the thermostat.

Yes.

I really like the way you described that because yeah, it does… With independence. And we all see it. If you work in this business long enough, it’s sometimes, and some people are more guilty than others, we’re probably all guilty at some point. It’s easier to pick up the pen and help someone then help teach them how to write or those kind of things. So I love that you’re still giving that independence to folks with that.

Yeah, empowering individuals. And we speak of control a lot because for many instances, remote supports provides another new layer of control that someone has over their own space that maybe they’ve experienced at certain times of the day ever before. And so that’s really cool to get to see is when people are like, “Wow, okay, I could do this now.” “Sure you can. Yeah, that’s all you.”

So we’ve got a little bit of time here. I do want to give each of you a chance. Do you have a story about someone you all have been able to serve that maybe stands out to you?

Well, there’s many. And I know this isn’t what you asked, but just for everybody to get an understanding who’s listening to this, remote supports may be new to you, the listener, or to certain people that are out there, but remote supports has now been around for over seven, eight years in many different states in Indiana, Ohio and others. And last year alone, we provided over a million hours of remote supports and it’s done in a consistent, available, reliable way. We have data to back that up. We have success stories, which you’re just asking about as well for those that are like, “Okay, this is still new to me.” We have those stories. We have the data that shows just how well this works to help people. So I just wanted to throw that… You led me right down that road, Josh.

I sure did.

So I decided to hop on board with it. But so many different stories. One that I think of quite often is an individual who is now in college and we’ve been supporting them prior to college and now that they’re in college just as a component of their day-to-day life. So even at college, we’re helping with some daily reminders, some medication type of assistance as well. And for that individual, they still have their privacy. They still have, again, that control. They still have the ability to be, I guess, what people would consider a normal college kid going to classes.

Nobody would even know that they have this extra layer of support that is there at the push of a button, but the individual has it whenever they may be experiencing some anxiety or just need somebody to talk to or for those reminders in the morning or in evening, et cetera, just to give that little extra layer that they need to go about their day. And they’re doing very, very well. We have many people that are in college and we’re supporting in different ways, but I can think of one individual off the top of my head again that it’s just awesome when I think about it and just what they’re experiencing in their day-to-day is really, really cool.

Nice.

But yeah, so things are going really well with me just starting out as a remote support consultant. And so I don’t have too many success stories right now because I’m still meeting individuals and doing outreach in the community. But I’d say the most important success story for me so far that keeps me going is seeing the light bulb moment in individuals. When you’re saying I’ve gone to outreach events and resource fairs and everything like that, and I’m explaining what independence and autonomy the remote supports can provide to individuals and the excitement that they receive from that and the inspiration like, “Oh my gosh, I can do that too.” That is what keeps me going and I am truly inspired by that.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Mark, Suzanne, if our listeners want to find out more about SafeinHome and all the great things you all do, what’s a good way for them to do that?

I would say our website, www.safeinhome.com is a really great resource. We also have a phone number that you can reach out to. If they’re individuals local to Indiana that are looking for support, I am more than happy to direct them to the area’s remote support consultant. And my phone number is (219) 794-5345. Or my email is sraymond@safeinhome.com.

The website does have the opportunity for individuals to see… There are short little video clips, two, three minutes in length. There are success stories of individuals that are being supported to this day with remote support. So if they go onto that website, they’ll get to see some of those cool things.

Awesome. We will put all that information down in the show notes so that folks can easily get connected, learn more, and just maybe reach out and find if remote supports might be the right thing for themselves or a loved one. Well, Mark, Suzanne, thank you so much for coming on today for telling us all about SafeinHome, some of the great supports that are available for individuals out there and really just helping them achieve their goals and I guess stay SafeinHome at the same time. I didn’t mean to do that plug there, but it just worked out really well. But again, thanks again for coming on and telling us all about it.

Well, thank you for bringing this to many more people because again, at the end of the day, we’re educators. We’re out there helping people better understand these different supports that are out there to help them live their best life. So thank you for helping expand that message across the stratosphere. So thank you.

Thank you so much, both of you.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @indataproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com.

A special thanks to Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.