Get Peace of Mind with Family & Friends Monitoring

It’s widely known that a medical alert for seniors is an essential way to keep them safe. If your elderly loved one falls or has a medical emergency, they’ll need help fast. A medical alert allows an older person to call for help near-instantly – and it saves them the fear and anxiety of lying on the floor and being unable to get assistance.

But once you’ve decided to get a medical alert, there are more factors to think about. One of the most important ones is – who does the medical alert call in the event of a crisis?

In this post, we’ll talk about the two main options you can choose to answer this question, as well as the benefits of the less common choice.

Response center vs. family and friends monitoring

When your older loved one presses that SOS button, who gets the call?

The more common option is a response center. With this method, the call goes to a facility where someone answers the call and makes other calls if necessary – like calling friends or emergency services.

The less common alternative is family and friends monitoring. Here, the medical alert calls a loved one of the senior – a family member or close friend. If that person doesn’t answer, the alert device calls another contact. It stores up to five different nominated contacts so there’s always a backup if the first, second, or even third and fourth contacts don’t answer. Plus, the device is designed not to be fooled by voicemail. It knows that an elderly person in crisis needs to speak to someone rather than leaving a message.

Benefits of family and friends monitoring

If you’re considering getting a medical alert for yourself or an older relative or friend, it’s important to think about which option is better for you. Although family and friends monitoring is less widely available, it’s a great alternative with a number of significant benefits.

Someone who understands

As we’ve mentioned, speed is essential during emergencies. But it can be difficult for a stranger to immediately grasp exactly what’s wrong – especially if a senior is feeling unwell and unable to communicate clearly.

Some things that a loved one will understand, while a response center won’t:

• The details of an elderly person’s medical conditions and symptoms, how they manage them, and even how they describe them. If an older relative says they are having their ‘bad leg’ pain, what are they referring to? Arthritis pain or a blood clot in the vein?
• The layout of an elderly person’s home and what dangers and helpful features are present in each area. Is the porch enclosed? Can the older person be heard by neighbors in the bedroom but not in the bathroom? Are blankets kept in the family room or den?
• People mentioned by the elderly person. “Joe” is in the apartment – does that mean an adult, a child, or a pet?
• Details of an elderly person’s life and habits. Are they missing a crucial chemotherapy or dialysis appointment right now?

When seconds matter, it can make all the difference if a loved one can instruct emergency services to go to a door in the back of the house rather than the front, or if they can explain that the living room window is always left open.

Comfort

Falling or having an emergency can be frightening to an elderly person, especially one who lives alone or has experienced similar unpleasant emergencies before. In this situation, many seniors would prefer to hear a friendly voice and speak to someone they already know and love.

A modern, good-quality medical alert, like the SureSafeGo, will allow the wearer to speak to someone through the device rather than through a base unit on the wall. That means that reassurance and kind words from a loved one are only a button-press away. And the older person can continue speaking to their loved one through the alarm until help arrives.

Dementia-friendliness

Both of the factors we’ve already discussed are even more important when the device wearer has dementia – whether it’s mild or advanced.

Conversation can be difficult when a dementia sufferer begins to forget words, get confused about where they are, or explain things confusingly. A dear friend or family member is more likely to be able to understand what a senior with dementia really means.

They’ll also know whether an elderly person is describing their own situation inaccurately. For example, a person with dementia might tell the response center that they are in their house in one state, when actually they moved years ago and are in an apartment in a completely different state. A loved one speaking to them through the dementia tracker device will be able to filter out what’s true and what’s not.

Similarly, a dementia sufferer may respond much better to the voice of a familiar person rather than a stranger from a response center. People with dementia can become paranoid or fearful, so they may hesitate to explain their situation or pain to someone they don’t know. In contrast, they’re more likely to feel comforted and safe when speaking to a loved one.

Lower cost

In addition to all of its other benefits, a family-monitored medical alert also typically costs less than the response center alternative. It’s easy to see why – a family-monitored device doesn’t need to pay for someone in a facility who’s waiting for a call. That’s a simple saving that’s passed on directly to the consumer.

How to get a family-monitored medical alert or dementia tracker

Most medical alert providers in the US don’t offer family-monitored devices.

SureSafe does. We’re one of the UK’s leading providers of elderly medical alerts, with over a decade of success under our belts. Our relationships with the UK’s National Health Service and the British Red Cross, as well as our glowing reviews, are a testament to our achievements so far.

Now, we’re bringing our affordable, high-quality, easy-to-use medical alert devices to the USA too.

Get peace of mind with a family-monitored medical alert

SureSafe’s family-monitored medical alerts offer multiple features that are designed to protect seniors when emergencies happen.

Each of our medical alerts has an SOS button, of course, that can be pressed to summon help. But what if the alert wearer is unconscious? That’s where automatic fall detection comes in. This functionality draws on three sensors which all work to assess whether a fall has happened. If the device’s algorithm believes that the alert wearer has fallen, it sends out a call for help all by itself – no need to press a button.

Plus, our alarms are mobile and include GPS tracking. So, if an elderly person is away from home when a crisis arises, family and friends know where to go to give help. This is also a great feature for seniors with dementia who are at risk of wandering or getting lost.

If you’d like to know more about SureSafe’s family and friends medical alerts, we’re here to help. Just get in touch by filling out our contact form, calling our helpline at 888 540 7193, or emailing us at [email protected]. You can also live chat with us or request a call back.