Elderly care devices
Discussion
Mother in law has just had a nasty fall. Not the first time.
We lost the father in law in January to COVID and she had it soon after. She has appeared really frail and vulnerable, mainly from being alone.
We live 15-30 minutes away, sister in law 10-15 minutes away.
Mother in law is the least technically able person you are ever likely to meet. Panic stations have been raised in the past because she hasn’t hung the phone up properly so no one can get in touch.
On Sunday, the fears were realised as she had gone over sometime Sunday afternoon and the regular check up calls hadn’t been answered. Wife and sister went round to find her on the floor with a lump on her head and no idea how she got there. Ambulance took her to hospital where they kept her in overnight.
Now we are trying to work out the best way to be alerted in the event of further problems. I want to fit TP link Tapo cameras in the house, but can see how the invasion of privacy might be unpalatable.
Wife favours a fall alert device. Bracelet or similar.
Having done a bit of research, the ones worth having appear to need to be connected to her phone line. This may prove problematic as BT have just switched her over to digital voice through the smarthub2.
Does anyone have any suggestions for simple to operate, long battery life fall alert/care devices? Must be easy to operate. We bought a small pendant and she couldn’t even get the charging cable in. And it didn’t do fall detection.
We lost the father in law in January to COVID and she had it soon after. She has appeared really frail and vulnerable, mainly from being alone.
We live 15-30 minutes away, sister in law 10-15 minutes away.
Mother in law is the least technically able person you are ever likely to meet. Panic stations have been raised in the past because she hasn’t hung the phone up properly so no one can get in touch.
On Sunday, the fears were realised as she had gone over sometime Sunday afternoon and the regular check up calls hadn’t been answered. Wife and sister went round to find her on the floor with a lump on her head and no idea how she got there. Ambulance took her to hospital where they kept her in overnight.
Now we are trying to work out the best way to be alerted in the event of further problems. I want to fit TP link Tapo cameras in the house, but can see how the invasion of privacy might be unpalatable.
Wife favours a fall alert device. Bracelet or similar.
Having done a bit of research, the ones worth having appear to need to be connected to her phone line. This may prove problematic as BT have just switched her over to digital voice through the smarthub2.
Does anyone have any suggestions for simple to operate, long battery life fall alert/care devices? Must be easy to operate. We bought a small pendant and she couldn’t even get the charging cable in. And it didn’t do fall detection.
My MIL is wheelchair bound and she was given an Alexa after she got stuck on the front door last winter for 4 hours when the wheel of the chair got tangled in something. She is seldom alone and without her phone but was on this occasion.
She now has 3 Alexa's (kitchen near back door, near front door and near bed) which is where she is most likely to be when alone. If she needs help in a similar situation to above then she can ask Alexa to call one of us.
Man-down or lone worker devices are brilliant IF she always wears it. My own grandmother had a fob thing on a string around her neck (it was years back and my memory is hazy) that could ring someone or maybe an helpline thing but she never wore it so it was useless.
She now has 3 Alexa's (kitchen near back door, near front door and near bed) which is where she is most likely to be when alone. If she needs help in a similar situation to above then she can ask Alexa to call one of us.
Man-down or lone worker devices are brilliant IF she always wears it. My own grandmother had a fob thing on a string around her neck (it was years back and my memory is hazy) that could ring someone or maybe an helpline thing but she never wore it so it was useless.
Your local council should provide heavily subsidised monitored telecare equipment, and they should have access to an occupational therapist who can assess her needs to determine the best tech to put in place, it might be a combination of a fall detector, orange pullcords, pir activity monitoring, they have a massive catalogue of assistive technologies available, they have digital pstn units, ip units, gsm units all that good s
t.
t. OldGermanHeaps said:
Your local council should provide heavily subsidised monitored telecare equipment, and they should have access to an occupational therapist who can assess her needs to determine the best tech to put in place, it might be a combination of a fall detector, orange pullcords, pir activity monitoring, they have a massive catalogue of assistive technologies available, they have digital pstn units, ip units, gsm units all that good st.
This is what you should do. An OT may also assess for other general equipment /adaptations, if necessary, to reduce falls etc. to maintain your MiL's independence t. 
Plus some rehab to try to prevent further falls.She’s had some sort of input and has visited the fall clinic, exact details escape me, the wife would know better. Nobody has suggested/offered any assistance with an alarm.
Been looking and I like the look of age uk’s “taking care anywhere” offering that uses a pendant with a SIM card in it, has a base to pop it in to charge, so no fiddly cable and works anywhere. Can speak to someone through the pendant in event of trouble.
£70 up front and £26pm though, but if she wears it, worth it for peace of mind.
Been looking and I like the look of age uk’s “taking care anywhere” offering that uses a pendant with a SIM card in it, has a base to pop it in to charge, so no fiddly cable and works anywhere. Can speak to someone through the pendant in event of trouble.
£70 up front and £26pm though, but if she wears it, worth it for peace of mind.
Sod's law says she'll forget to charge it just before it's needed. My mum had a conventional push button from Careline that worked well. The fob was battery but the important communication bits were mains powered. Failing that Alexa etc has come on since then and seems a good solution if she has her marbles.
there was a recent thread about this which might have some useful ideas.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
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