GPS personal alarms

Joyce Goldenlily

My ex has a medi alert which he has used very successfully after having a fall. It set me thinking that perhaps I ought to invest in one. Not because I have a health problem but because my garden is very isolated and if I had a fall no one could see me or hear me. 

I have now invested in a GPS personal alarm, devised I think for people suffering from dementia who could wander away from home and get lost.
Mine is a small neat item which once activated, can summon help wherever I might be when gardening, walking the dog etc.
They are not cheap but it gives me peace of mind when out on the clay trails around my home and also when working in the garden. I felt I did not need to have a health problem to use one, anyone can have an unintentional fall, my young neighbour is thinking of investing in one as she is often out horseriding in lonely areas and working in isolated places.
The only problem I have is to include it in my daily routine, remember to put it on and also to keep it charged. 

pansyface

Yes, we have been trying to persuade a 75 year old friend who goes off every day on solo walks across isolated moorland to get one but he’s having none of it.

Fire

@Joyce Goldenlily  out of interest, does yours direct to a call centre? Do you have a subscription for the service. It's a very wise thing to do.

Joyce Goldenlily

Yes Fire, there is an annual service charge, payable monthly or annually of £16.00 per month.
When activated I am put through to a central call centre which is able to pinpoint my exact location. I am not sure if standard alarms are limited to a specific distance from the home, I think some are connected via the landline telephone.
When activating mine on arrival, I had to sit the unit on a window sill for 20 minutes to allow it to connect with a satellite, it had to "see the sky".
I have to carry out a test each month to make sure it is still working so next time I test it I am going to do it when out with the dog in the middle of nowhere.
When I connected with the call centre I was dealt with by a very helpful, friendly English operator which made a nice change.

Ergates

Good idea. I have fallen over twice in the garden, which has a lot of steep banks. Once I managed to crawl back to the house with a sprained ankle. The second time, OH saw me, and wondered why I was having a lie down. Much of our garden is out of sight, and too far to shout for help. We have a couple of walk-in talkies, bought in Lidl, and make a point of using them when out in the garden. Apart from the safety aspect, they are great for calling people in for lunch etc.

Joyce Goldenlily

pansyface said:

Yes, we have been trying to persuade a 75 year old friend who goes off every day on solo walks across isolated moorland to get one but he’s having none of it.

Yes. I had a life changing fall in my mid forties, walking the dog around a nature reserve early one Sunday morning. It was pure luck that there was a couple of itinerant fishemen trying to sneak in without paying who happened to come along and helped me. Goodness knows how long I might have had to wait before anyone came by, I couldn't walk because I had a triple fracture and dislocation in my ankle.
It is a shame your friend is so stubborn, a lot of people seem to feel it is a sign of weakness to use an alarm, they want to hang on to their independence. 
Hopefully I shall never need to use mine, a bit like car and house insurance.

Joyce Goldenlily

What made me think about an alarm is that 3 times I have ended up flat on my face, in the garden, when pushing canes into the ground. They  snapped and I went a*** over t***, flat on my face n the flowers.
Because I have both knees and an ankle replaced, when on the ground I am like a beached whale. Not a pretty sight to see me get up! Unelegant is not the word for it.
I was totally unhurt fortunately but there was no one around to help anyway.

Ergates

I was standing at a bus stop in Bath, and heard someone calling for help. Went to investigate and found a lady lying in her front garden. She had tripped on the front steps, but was hidden by a high hedge, lived alone, and her neighbours were out at work. She’d been there for a while before I found her, and getting very cold. I was able to get a blanket to put round her, and call and wait with her for an ambulance. 

We persuaded Mother in law to get one, after her bath seat collapsed, and she spent a night in cold bath water before her hairdresser arrived and raised the alarm. She was very naughty about wearing it though, I could see her putting it on when I rang the doorbell on visits! 

Topbird

Hello Joyce. Do you mind telling us which brand / make /company you opted for please? 

I'd like to persuade my very active, 87 year old mother-in-law to have a personal alarm. She's out and about quite a lot so I think a GPS / satellite alarm would be a much, much better option than one tied to a landline. It also needs to be a fairly stylish item as I don't think she'd even consider wearing anything which suggested 'old lady pendant'. 

Does yours have a 'fall detector' function? (ie it detects a fall and triggers an alarm even if you knock yourself out)

I've seen one which looks very much like my Apple watch and seems to tick all the boxes although it doesn't have a fall detector. (The company thinks the detectors are a bit unreliable and prefers not to fit something people can't depend on).

I'd really appreciate 'knowing' somebody who's got one of these before I blunder in trying to sell the idea to her.

No problem giving me the info via PM's if you're more comfortable doing it that way🙂

Kili

If you don't want to pay a subscription service a good compromise when your alone or out walking  is a phone app known as "what3words" which has a name for every 3 meter square on the planet (You need a smart phone).
No matter where you are as long as you can get a phone signal to call for help you can tell them the name of the 3 meter square you are located in.

for example my location maybe listed as thank.thooth.weedy which is located near Juniper street in pennsylvania . You can type those 3 words in on the app and it will show you the location.
All you do is read that back to anyone who can then look up your location on what3words and see exactly where you are.

Balgay.Hill

You could treat yourself to a nice watch. 

https://www.breitling.com/us-en/emergency/