Panic buttons/systems for the elderly?

Paul

Would it not be easier for him to have a mobile phone at his side with certain telephone numbers programmed in.

That way he is covered no matter where he is.

Regards

Mick

Possibly, but being 83 and having memory problems I don't know if he would remember to carry it or be able to cope with it i.e remembering to charge it, not pressing buttons accidentally, knowing how to unlock it when the "keyguard" is on to stop accidental dialing and so forth..

At least with the button when it's round his neck it takes a conscious effort to take it off.

I'm sure there must be systems that allow for coverage in several locations, seems to be a matter of finding them.

cheers,
Paul

Would it not be simpler for him to take off the pendant at night and have it dangle somewhere where he can easily reach it if necessary, when he's in bed?

Steve B

quote:

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Originally posted by Steve B:
Would it not be simpler for him to take off the pendant at night and have it dangle somewhere where he can easily reach it if necessary, when he's in bed?

Steve B

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It'd be far simpler, but assumes he'd remember to get up, put it on, go to the toilet/wherever, and take it off again before going to bed.

I'm reluctant to go into great detail as I don't want to get too specific in a public forum but think 83 year old with memory problems and you can probably imagaine...

cheers,
Paul

Paul

Have you thought of contacting Age Concern for advice.

Regards

Mick

quote:

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Originally posted by Mick Parry:
Paul

Have you thought of contacting Age Concern for advice.

Regards

Mick

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Did have a look on their site, they appear to be affiliated to a similar thing, i.e single basestation.

If the button is pushed after an accident or acidentally I don't understand how these systems can expect the wearer to hear, and be heard from one basestation over the area of the average home/garden?

Paul

Paul

I'm not sure whether this is entirely pertinent to your enquiry.

My 81 year old father-in-law lives at home with my wife and I after being discharged from hospital after his third stroke earlier this year. The longest we leave him alone is 1.5 hours and we have a panic button alarm that he wears around his wrist that is linked by radio to a unit attached to the phone line.

It costs twenty dollars per week (a lot of money for a pensioner) and is lot of help for my own and my wife's peace of mind but I'm not sure how helpful it would be for his safety.

He has accidentally set it off twice but answered the phone when they rang.

My doubts of the efficacy of the device are based mostly on the use of the telephone. He finds our cordless phone a bit difficult to use and often I return home after being out for an hour and the phone is off the hook because he has forgotten to hang it up with the "talk" button so the possibility of a false alarm is high. I also doubt that he would use it if he fell or hurt himself because he doesn't like to make a fuss and I suspect he would rather stay put and wait for me to get home. If he had another stroke I'm not sure he could gather his wits enough to press the button.

What we have found useful is a cordless doorbell. He has the button next to his bed and we have the chimer in our bedroom. He has used it once when he fell out of bed at 2am. We have taken steps to ensure that he doesn't fall out of bed again.

Deane

ps: I have sent you a PM.

I've done a bit of ringing around because I'd never seen a system as you suggested and yet it is so obviously good sense.

Couldn't find anything exactly to match want you want. Two suggestions only. You can have emergency cords fitted (like in some sheltered housing etc) in as many rooms as you like which when puled rings a single number. Expensive, and you still need to be able to get to the cord to pull it. The other option, and the one I've seen used most often, is a rechargeable phone with base station and several handsets dotted around the rooms (or indeed on your person). Need to set up a quickdial and be able to remember to use it though.

Anyway my local S Servs dept are still working the problem for a mythical patient so I may come up with something else!

bruce

Personal panic buttons certainly aren't a 100% solution for this problem as I found when my mother was in a similar situation. She occasionally set it off by accident and then got so fed up with it she stopped wearing the thing. From discussions I had with the SS though, they accept false alarms as an unfortunate by product of offering protection to vulnerable people. They'd prefer to deal with occasional unnecessary call-outs than miss a valid one! From your personal point of view, I sympathise with your predicament, but I'm afraid it's all part and parcel of dealing with frail and elderly family. Hopefully technology will eventually offer us a better solution.

False alarms are part and parcel of it, I fully accept that these things will happen, my problem is with the system in that it just doesn't seem suitable for the purpose unless you live in a bungalow.

It doesn't help that we live five minutes away, well, I don't mean that how it might sound. If we lived a couple of hours away there would be an element of "we can't do anything right away so let's wait a short while to see what happens", when you live 2 miles away you tend to just jump in the car and go see for yourself..

Weird thing is doesn't seem like I'm looking for anything extraordinary - I'm really staggered nobody appears to make such a system (at least that I can find).

I wonder if anyone makes a speaker unit that plugs into the extention, it wouldn't be linked with the alarm box but as it's on the same BT line I presume it would amplify any phone activity on the line, same way as if a you have several handsets plugged in each can hear a call on the same line regardless of who places it.

regards,
Paul