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Aging in Place, Part 3: Calling for Help [1]
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Date: 2025-01-21
One of the greatest concerns I have as my partner (79) and I (72) age in place is: what happens if one of us needs help and the other is unavailable? Maybe they are at the grocery store, or a doctor’s appointment—or maybe even something fun! (I play bridge at a club a couple of times a week, my spouse is at church weekly).
If we are fully mobile, we just go to the landline phone and call 911. We also each have cellphones, and could use those—but we’re not good about keeping them charged and we don’t carry them on our persons. But yes, if we’re mobile, no real problem.
But what if we are not? We’re in a two-story house—there is room enough to just live on the first floor, but we’re hoping to not make that change yet—so if we fall and can’t get up, and may need immediate attention, then what?
One answer is to make those cellphones part of us. Keep them charged, keep them in our pocket. But I don’t think either of us would do that religiously. And, in a fall that cellphone could slide out of the pocket, out of reach.
Another option is an alert button on a neckstrap. You pay a monthly fee, and when you press the button you can talk to a call center that will call you and contact 911 if you don’t respond. It’s the neckstrap and wearing it constantly where the issue arises. You should wear it to bed in case you fall from the mattress or when visiting the restroom. Many people don’t (my mother didn’t wear hers regularly).
What’s left?? An approach that many here are likely to denounce, but that I have just signed up for: a call center offered by Amazon that takes HELP calls from Alexa and, based on the profile you have created (home phone, home address), notifies your local 911. (Emergency services won’t accept your own call from Alexa to the phone.) Alexa Emergency Assist costs $60 a year plus the Alexa devices.
Yes, yes, yes. I traded off some privacy and security (my profile says how to open the locked door, which does make sense, but…) for some hopes for greater safety and health, and fewer worries.
There may be other, possibly better, competing solutions relying on voice calls for help out there.
Aging in Place, Part 1
Aging in Place, Part 2: The Kitchen
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