ElderoakElderoak

Help guide

Short, screenshot-style walkthroughs for the five things most families do in their first week with Elderoak. Don't have the app yet? Get it on the App Store.

1

Add the person you're caring for

about 2 minutes

You can only see medications, appointments, and observations for someone after they've been added to your family group. Most accounts have one cared-for person to start — you can add more later (Pro tier).

  1. Open Elderoak on your iPhone.
  2. Tap the Family tab at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Tap Add a cared-for person.
  4. Enter their first name, your relationship to them (mom, dad, partner, grandparent…), and their date of birth. Birthday powers the age and birthday-reminder fields.
  5. Optionally add a photo. The photo shows up on the home screen, in the dose-confirm card, and on the Apple Watch. Tap the camera icon to pick from your camera roll.
  6. Tap Save. They're now in your family group.
Tip: The cared-for person doesn't need their own Elderoak account for you to track everything. If they'd like to use the app themselves (larger text, simpler home screen, a one-tap SOS button), invite them as a family member in the next step using their email.
2

Invite family members and paid aides

under 1 minute per person

Elderoak is designed for multiple people coordinating one person's care. Inviting your siblings, your partner, and any paid aides means everyone sees the same medication schedule, the same appointments, and the same observations — no group-text confusion about who picked up the prescription.

  1. On the iPhone, tap Family Invite member.
  2. Enter their email address.
  3. Pick a role:
    • Family caregiver — full access. Adds meds, marks doses, sees the documents vault.
    • Paid aide — full access but tagged so shift-handoff notes show their name. Can be removed instantly when the role ends.
    • Cared-for — the simplified view we designed for the senior themselves.
  4. Tap Send invite. They'll get an email link that signs them into the same family group on their phone.
Tip: The free tier covers one caregiver and one cared-for person. To invite family members or a paid aide, upgrade to Pro from iPhone Settings → Upgrade. (We don't sell subscriptions on the web — Apple and Google handle billing.)
3

Log a medication and mark a dose taken

about 90 seconds for the first med

Medications are the single most common thing families track in Elderoak. Once a med is in the system, everyone in the family group gets the same reminder at dose time and can see when someone else has already given it.

  1. On the iPhone, tap Meds + Add medication.
  2. Type the drug name (start typing and we suggest commonly-spelled matches), the dosage (e.g. 10 mg, 5 ml, 1 tablet), and the schedule. Schedules can be:
    • Once a day, twice a day, three times a day, etc., with the specific times you pick.
    • Every N hours for pain meds or antibiotics.
    • Specific days of the week — common for methotrexate, bisphosphonates, etc.
    • As needed— won't reminder, but still tracks each dose for refill counting.
  3. Add notes only if needed — “take with food”, “not with grapefruit juice”, etc. These appear in the dose-time reminder.
  4. Tap Save. The med is added and every family member sees it.

When the dose-time reminder fires

  1. Tap the reminder notification (or open Elderoak — the dose card is on the home screen).
  2. Tap one of three buttons:
    • Took it — logs the dose, clears the reminder for everyone in the family.
    • Skipped — logs that the dose was intentionally skipped (with an optional reason).
    • Snooze 15 min — reminder re-fires in 15 minutes; useful if mom is brushing her teeth.
Tip: If the cared-for person uses an Apple Watch, the dose card also shows on their wrist with the same three buttons. Whoever taps first wins — the dose stays marked taken for everyone.
4

Set up Apple Watch and fall alerts

about 5 minutes

The Elderoak Apple Watch app shows today's medications, appointments, and a one-tap SOS — and, on Series 4 and later, relays Apple's built-in fall detection to your family group so they get a heads-up even when the cared-for dismisses Apple's own “Are you OK?” prompt.

Install the Watch app

  1. On the iPhone paired to the Watch, open the Watch app.
  2. Scroll down to Available apps and find Elderoak.
  3. Tap Install. It typically takes 30–60 seconds.
  4. On the Watch, raise your wrist and tap the Elderoak complication or open it from the app grid. Today's doses appear.

Turn on fall alerts

  1. On the Watch, open Elderoak. You'll see a one-time prompt: “Elderoak would like to receive fall detection events”. Tap Allow.
  2. That's it. From now on, if Apple Watch detects a fall, your family group receives a push notification within seconds: “[name]'s Apple Watch detected a fall — tap to call them and check in.” The Watch shows a small green “Family notified” banner so the cared-for knows the relay worked.
Tip: Apple Watch — not Elderoak — does the actual fall detection and runs Apple's built-in 30-second emergency-services countdown. Our relay is the lighter-weight family heads-up: your family gets pinged even when the cared-for is fine and dismisses Apple's prompt. APNs delivery is best-effort and not an emergency-grade signal — for any real medical emergency, call your local emergency number directly.

To revoke later: iPhone Settings → Apple Watch → Privacy & Security → Fall Detection. Revoking does not turn off Apple's own fall-detection flow.

5

Use SOS (and what it actually does)

under 30 seconds to fire; please read the warning

The SOS button is a hold-to-fire button on the iPhone home screen and on the Apple Watch. Holding it for 2 seconds sends a push notification to every family caregiver in your family group, with the cared-for's display name and a tap-to-call button.

How to fire SOS

  1. Open Elderoak on iPhone (or raise your wrist and open the Watch app).
  2. Press and hold the red SOS circle for 2 seconds. A countdown ring fills around it.
  3. Release after the ring completes — the family is notified. (Release early to cancel; pocket-presses won't trigger SOS.)

Elderoak SOS is NOT a 911 replacement.

The SOS button notifies your family group — it does not call 911 or any emergency dispatch service. For a medical emergency where seconds matter, dial 911 directly first, then SOS your family. The in-app SOS sheet, the watch fall-alert UX, and our Terms all carry this disclaimer.

Still stuck?

For billing, subscriptions, account deletion, or anything not covered above, see our Support page. For everything else, email [email protected] — we typically reply within one business day.