Help! My Mom or Dad Won't Wear an Alarm Device

Getting older can mean great things for your parents – like relaxing in retirement, going on vacation, or taking time to play with grandkids and pets. But ageing can also bring risks of falls and medical emergencies, and that can be worrying for children of older parents.

Alarm devices can make a massive difference in keeping seniors safer when a crisis strikes. Yet some elderly parents can resist wearing them, leading to conflict between older parents and their adult children.

What can you do if you’re worried about your older parent’s safety, but they don’t want to wear a personal alarm? It helps to know the reasons and emotions behind their objections. Below, we list 5 common reasons why seniors can feel reluctant to wear an alarm device – and we also discuss ways to address each of these concerns.

1. I’m healthy – so it’s pointless

It’s common for an older person to feel that they’re unlikely to fall or have a medical emergency.

But the fact is that older age simply brings a higher risk of falls, heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies:

• According to the National Institute on Ageing, more than one in four people aged 65 and up will fall at least once in a year.

• The National Institute of Health (NIH) tells us that after you turn 55, your risk of stroke doubles every decade.

• About three-quarters of Americans aged 60-79 have cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Association says, and the rate is even higher for seniors aged 80 and up. Cardiovascular disease, of course, is a main cause of heart attacks.

The bottom line is that even if an older person feels healthy and great, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not at risk. For example, factors like age-related loss of muscle can affect seniors even if they don’t realize it, leading to a higher chance of falls.

And these common emergencies, like many others, can have much worse effects if help isn’t called for right away. NIH is clear about strokes – when it comes to getting help, “every second counts” to preserve your brain health and your independence. It’s just as important to get help fast for heart attacks – which are the leading cause of death for most groups of Americans. And lying on the floor unable to get up after a fall can also have serious health effects, including hypothermia, pressure sores, and psychological trauma.

So, for an older person, it’s just not good to gamble that a fall, heart attack, stroke, or other emergency won’t happen. The impacts of facing one of these crises without help are too severe.

2. It’s not worth the hassle

Older parents can often feel protective of their adult children, not wanting to bother them or see them spend money.

But alarm devices for seniors can be very easy to set up and extremely affordable. Choosing a medical alert that calls family and friends can lower costs even further because you don’t need a monitoring center, and it can be more convenient, too.

What’s more, it’s crucial for seniors to think about the potential time and financial costs of having an emergency and not getting help quickly. A stroke, fall, heart attack or other crisis that doesn’t receive treatment or assistance fast is more likely to end in longer-term hospitalization, increased disability or illness, a loss of independence, devastating medical bills, or even a move to a care facility. These are upsetting situations for older people, and they’re also costly and time-consuming for families.

So, if an older parent really wants to protect their adult child’s time and finances, getting a medical alert is the far better choice.

3. That’s not for independent seniors like me

When older parents think of medical alerts for seniors, they might picture a frail elderly person who needs assistance with daily tasks. If they’re managing well in their home on their own, they might think – “I’m not someone who needs an alarm device like that. I’m perfectly able to take care of myself.”

But actually, alarm devices are exactly what independent seniors need to stay independent.

It’s great for older people to keep living in their own homes for as long as possible. This is called “ageing in place,” and it’s something that experts in ageing generally recommend if at all possible. But one major risk of staying in one’s own home is the issue of not having someone around to help if you need it.

We’ve already discussed the long-term impacts of experiencing an emergency without any way of calling for help as soon as possible. All those health effects can mean a huge loss of independence and mobility.

So, an older person who likes living independently in their own home needs a way of calling for help, to keep their chances of staying independent as high as possible.

4. An alarm device will be too complicated to deal with

It’s understandable that many older people can feel tired of dealing with complex technology. After all, tech advances fast, so a phone they knew how to use five years ago can be obsolete by the time they get their next one.

Tech can also be annoying to seniors if it has small text that’s hard to see or a complicated interface that’s not intuitive.

But luckily, that’s not the case at all with SureSafe’s elderly medical alerts. Just take a look at our SureSafeGo device, and you can see how simple it is to use. On the front, there’s one large button marked SOS, which you can press to get assistance. Two buttons on the side are for power and muting the device. And if the alarm needs to tell you something important (such as that the battery is low, the SOS has been activated, or the SOS has been cancelled) it will simply speak those words out loud – no mysteries involved!

5. I can call for help with my cell phone

We’ve left one of the biggest points here until last.

Some seniors recognize the risks they face and know how crucial it is to get assistance fast in an emergency. But they believe they can use their cell phone or another device to call for help.

This isn’t a good plan – for several reasons.

One is that it’s not possible or practical to keep your cell phone with you at all times. In fact, those moments when a senior is busy or in a hurry and has left their phone behind are exactly the moments when they’re more likely to fall. What’s more, getting in and out of the bath or shower is a particularly risky task – and very few people bring their phone into the shower.

There’s also the fact that a phone that seems to be within reach might be disastrously out of reach to an older person who is on the floor, unable to get up. A phone that’s up on a countertop, table, or bed might as well be miles away for an elderly person who can’t reach it and can’t stand up from the floor.

It’s also important to mention that an older person who’s dizzy or sick might not be able to go through all the steps of making a phone call. And if they’re losing consciousness, they might only have a second or two to raise that crucial alert. That’s exactly why alarm devices are so simple – with a single SOS button that you just press and hold.

Lastly, we should remember that not all seniors are conscious after an emergency. They might be unable to make any calls at all. In this situation, a special function of medical alerts can step in. This function is called automatic fall detection, and it means that the alert device will call for help all by itself if it believes it has sensed its wearer falling.

Affordable, user-friendly alarms for your older parents

Not sure what medical alert to choose for your older parent? SureSafe’s devices have all the features we’ve mentioned above and more. They even have GPS tracking so they can help your elderly parent get help if they encounter trouble while away from home.

If you or your older parent would like to chat more about our devices and what they can do, our team is here to help. There are lots of ways to get in touch – you can use our contact form, call our experts at 888 540 7193 or email us at [email protected]. Alternatively, try our live chat or request a call back.