Anyone know about personal emergency response systems?

[agate]

Does anyone know about personal emergency response systems?

I found this from the AARP--seems like good advice:

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I haven't used one of these in 10 years but in WA state I had one, provided free by the state. They may have changed a lot since then.

I was thinking of signing up for one of these systems. It looks to me as if the emergency pull cords this building provides aren't working well. And if a person falls but isn't close enough to the cord to pull it, that person is out of luck.

[Virginia]

Agate, I do have one. I was going to change to another company because I heard they were cheaper even with the GPS. I do not have GPS. I got a call last week from the company I am with saying that it was time for me to pay again. Yes, I could pay monthly or yearly, but I chose to pay every six months. I didn't want to obligate myself for a full year and I didn't want to bother with a payment every month, so I chose every six months.

I looked on line at the one I was thinking about changing to and it seemed to me that the piece that goes around the neck appeared large. Mine is a button, which I wear all the time even in the shower. It is unobtrusive and fits under my blouses, down to about the spot where the bra starts. It is light weight and doesn't bother me at all.

Mine supposedly has the fall detection, but that I can't say about. I have dropped mine on several occasions and nothing has happened. One time it was on the tile floor as I was getting out of the shower. I think that should count as a fall, but they did not try to contact me. I have pushed the button I wear a couple of times just to see what would happen and then they talk to me through the unit which I set up in my bedroom. At first it was detected real well, but I just found that it is no longer working. I pushed it a couple of times and there was no response, so I went to the bedroom and pushed the emergency button and they answered right away. I will call for a new button to wear around my neck. It could be that mine has just been so wet, so many times that it wouldn't take that much soap and water. I take long showers and the soapy water runs over it constantly.

When the piece I wear around my neck is working properly I can go to my trash and recycling outback of my home and it works from there. I tested it. I can go out my front door and walk down the steps and out in the yard a little way and works from there. It also worked from upstairs.

Personally, I think that the same people who work at the call center answering the calls, answers for most all of the companies. A lot of people think this is true. I don't think these companies have their own people just sitting there all the time waiting for a call to come in. If this is true the response time would be about the same no matter what company you go with. I figure they have call centers set up all across the country in different regions.

I do feel safer with mine on when it is working. I definitely was able to get help.

Sunshine has one. Hers is also water proof, but at one time she was taking it off when she swam. I pay $19.95 a month, but I had to talk them down to get that. Remember you can do that by saying you can get the same thing they are offering for a cheaper price.

Mine also came with a piece you can wear like a watch, but I have never worn it. I do not like the looks of it. I do like having the lock box on my door. The call center has the numbers that I gave them and they call the EMTs and give them the number to get in. They also have my brother's telephone number. However, I gave my brother the number of the lock box so that he can come in anytime he feels it might be necessary.

Guess I better go call and get a new button to go around my neck.

[Virginia]

Agate they were responsive to my request for a new neck button. The person who took the call asked me to test the wrist band I have never worn. It works and she asked me to wear it just until they can get a new button to go around the neck, which will then have to be set to work with my system.

They talk very nice to you. There are tons of companies out there, so I guess they have to.

Jeanie's is set up with her home alarm system and I could have done that too, but I have had my house alarm for many years. I am very satisfied with them and as long as I don't change anything they can not go up on the price, so I decided not to use them. I could never get the price I have now if I wanted to stop the personal alarm for any reason.

[Sunshine 2]

I use lifeline that I got through the local VNA.
It has fall protection, really any protection. If you fall, it calls you and if you dont respond, they call the contact person you have, and the EMT if no contact person. You can push your own button for any help you need, like youre lost, or you cannot get out of bed etc.

We put a lock box on our front door and LIFELINE gets the code to that and gives it to the EMT so they don’t have to break down your door.
It gives me Peace of mind.
Once a month I check it by pressing the button to be sure it works, and it does every time.

[stillstANNding]

My mom also has Lifeline.

ANN

[agate]

I thought long and hard about fall detection, which sounds useful, but the Consumer Reports article persuaded me to skip it for now:

3. Should You Add a Fall-Detection Feature?Some companies offer the option of automatic fall detection for an additional monthly fee. Manufacturers say these devices sense falls when they occur and automatically contact the dispatch center, just as they would if you had pressed the call button.

That sounds great, but it may not work perfectly every time, says Neil Alexander, M.D., a professor of geriatric and palliative medicine at the University of Michigan and director of the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center.

“The technology probably isn’t fully refined,” he says. In some cases, for instance, this feature may register something as a fall that isn’t. The alarm might go off if you drop it or momentarily lose your balance but don’t actually land on the ground.

The companies we looked into that offer fall detection charge $15 or less for it per month, so the additional cost isn't huge. But if you’re at high risk for falls, be aware that this feature isn't without potential flaws.

Virginia, it's good to know that you really can get the device very wet without damaging it. When I had this arrangement before, and was told it was OK to get it wet, I never really believed that.

I just signed up for one of them at $21.95/month. I doubt that I could install a lockbox in this apartment building but might consider that too if possible.

[jendie]

I have one, my insurance pays for it. It has GPS, but no fall detection.

[agate]

I've been combing through my insurance information but it's not covered. $22/month is a small price to pay for this though.

I've had several falls in my apartment where I came within an inch of needing help. I'm not sure what the radius of this gadget will be but it's possible it will cover me even when I'm in the laundry room at the other end of this building.

That would be nice as I had a rather bad fall in the laundry room and absolutely nobody was around. That was years ago and I now know what to watch out for there--like a wet floor-- and so I'm hoping that won't happen again. But with no staff here two-thirds of the time, and with the staff not able to do anything but call 911, I'm glad I'm going ahead with this.

The 2 management people aren't supposed to lift anyone--though they did do CPR on one resident recently. He died anyway, and some people had questions about whether they should even have been doing CPR.

[agate]

I'm dragging this thread up to make an additional comment.

I've had my LifeStation system for a few months now. I hadn't had it long before it started telling me, at top volume, "LOW CONSOLE BATTERY." I would get this message several times a day, and a couple of times it woke me up at night.

This meant a call to the people in charge. I was instructed to press the CLEAR button to stop it from doing that--and they would send me a whole new system. But it would take 2 weeks to get here.

In those weeks I've been trying to silence that message by pressing the CLEAR button. It only works for 5 hours, I found out, and if I want it to work for 10 hours, I need to press it twice. I've been doing that but somehow it breaks through before the 10 hours have passed.

The battery is supposed to last for 5 years. This one didn't last more than a couple of months.

Today the new system finally arrived. I have to call and find out what to do. Then I have to box up the old one and return it to them. At least they're paying the postage.

I've been seriously considering forgetting about this idea and just cancelling it but I'll give the new setup a try.

[Virginia]

Agate, mine is plugged into my phone (I think, it has been so long since I set it up) and I guess it is also plugged into the electricity. As long as I have had it I have never had it go off or heard of having to get another battery. I think I am going to check it again tomorrow to make sure it is still working. It was a month or two ago, but I forget to do it every month. I feel much better about having it in the shower and going to empty the trash which is in back of my house and down nine steps. It sits beside my bed on the night stand and has a light on it. If the light bothers me I fold a hand towel and put over it. If I want to talk to them that is where I have to do it. I cannot talk through the button I wear around my neck, but if I push that button they are supposed to respond by calling the EMT people and they give them the number to my lockbox. Also if I fall it is supposed to detect it, but that part I do not believe.

I wonder why you have a battery and I don't. Mine works for up to 30 feet around my house, which allows me to go to trash and recycling.

[agate]

There are several types. I'm not sure why the battery is part of mine either except maybe that it's so it will still run in case of a power failure.

Today's phone session with the person who was supposed to be "walking" me through the process didn't go well. I couldn't hear her well (poor phone connection at their end) but at least she was very patient and willing to wait and wait while I tinkered with this cord and that cord. There were 3 cords and a switch I had to tinker with. Not easy with two sore arms.

It hooked up to the phone, the wall outlet, and the phone jack.

Then it had to be tested. This meant getting the VERY LOUD message saying "Emergency!" at least 10 times. I was very uneasy about startling the neighbors.

And the thing never did work. Then the woman on the phone got cut off and didn't call back. I finally called and canceled the whole thing. I've got both of their units (the older and the newer one) boxed up and ready to be picked up tomorrow. I'm very glad to have it on its way out of here.

If I get tempted to try one of these systems again, I'm going to do far more research about it and stick with a type that will be easier for me. I can't imagine that most seniors would find this easy.

They ought to have a technician set it up, IMO. But they don't.

The system had to be tested every month, and that meant another very loud message for my neighbors to be disturbed by.

[Sunshine 2]

I have LIfeline and it also has fall alert (you can choose that service or not) and GPS. So far, it has worked well.

I wear lit like a lanyard.

[Sunshine 2]

Also, I see that Jeanie is reading the board again. She has hit the Thanks button on this thread.

[agate]

Sunshine, Jeanie probably hit the "Thanks" button back before her fall. The thread goes back to May. I confused things by dragging it up.

Let's hope that Jeanie will be back among us soon though.

[agate]

This Consumer Reports article was one of the ways I looked for the system I've been using. The article is now over a year old and doesn't indicate whether one system is better than another in any way. Lifeline looks like a good one to have.

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