Lanyard/Bracelet alarms

[KingscoteStaff]

Mum, 93, lives alone in a very convenient bungalow. She has very friendly neighbours and my sister and I live 25 mins away (in opposite directions).

She has not managed to use a smart phone or tablet - arthritic fingers.

Can anyone recommend one of those pendants or bracelets that send a message to us if, for example, she fell over and couldn’t reach the landline or wasn’t able to dial?

She is in Lambeth, who don’t seem to provide them, so we’re happy to pay for the service.

Lambeth do provide Carelink alarms to some people.
https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/adult-social-care-and-health/adults-and-older-people/living-home/personal-home-alarms-careline-key-safes

Yes I'd always recommend getting the one from her local council.

If she has Attendance Allowance it can help to pay for the fees.

Has she had an Occupational Therapy Assessment? My DA had one after a fall and the things that they've put in place have helped her to remain in her home, which is what she wants.

My DM has one from Taking Care and they are brilliant. She had a different company before who were nowhere near as good.

It's personal preference on lanyard or bracelet as obvs no good if they don't wear it.

They also supply a box in the kitchen which monitors activity in the house - I've had calls to say the house is too cold when her boiler had broken, or to say she doesn't seem to have got up in the morning and it turned out she was unwell with a UTI.

DM likes chatting with them as well as they call regularly to check she is OK.

You could try an Alexa as an alternative or a back up on the event she forgets to wear the lanyard. My Mum’s is downstairs but can ‘hear’ all the way upstairs.

Hss she got a landline?
This is a big consideration for my mother who has a phone but not a smartphone ( which she never turns on, anyway).
BT are NOT good and she is facing losing her landline, I've got to sort this out before next March.

DM had a wristband alarm that linked to a call centre via a monitoring box, prior to moving onto a nursing home. It was meant to activate if it sensed a fall and someone at the call centre end of things would speak to DM via the box to ask if she was okay. Also, DM was supposed to press the button on the wristband if she needed help.

It seemed like a good idea in theory, but wasn’t great in reality. The alarm only sensed an unbroken fall from a standing height, so if the person tried to save themselves,
breaks the fall in anyway, slips off a chair or bed or somehow ‘slithers’ to the ground it doesn’t activate. So DM fell multiple times without it notifying me and then she wouldn’t press the button to get help once on the floor for a
multitude of reasons. In hindsight it didn’t offer the peace of mind I hoped for and wasn’t worth the bother.

DFIL now has a service where he doesn't need a landline. He does have Wi-Fi though.

What is the battery life like on different options? We were considering future proofing and getting one with gps but I don’t know if my MIL would remember to charge it.

How about an AirTag on her keys and in her handbag? She'd have to consent to these though obviously

We've managed to get a backup box for my granny when BT replaced her copper landline. It's a battery box that should power stuff if the electric goes off so that the landline still works.

It was like pulling teeth to get it, and you need to triple check it's been installed correctly (ours had an error light on it and wasn't charging which we only clocked after the engineer had gone).

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/digital-voice--will-my-service-work-in-a-power-cut-#:~:text=A%20Battery%20Backup%20Unit%20(BBU,phone%20or%20existing%20corded%20handset.

It's this type of thing.