Mom lives by herself. Looking for a Medical Alert System that would contact only certain family members. Mom is on a limited income, and I'm looking for a system that doesn't have a monthly fee, and won't cost an arm and a leg, as my siblings cannot help me with this financially.
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Thank you all for your responses! they have been extremely helpful!
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I have programmed the names of contact people. I can track her on my cell phone and I also have a key in a specific place where emergency personnel can enter her home if necessary. I am very happy with the system. If she sounds the alarm, someone will talk with her over the system
There is a company that works hand in hand (sorry I don't remember the name) with Aging.com
I have spoken with them. If I remember correctly, you must commit for 90 days then it's monthly; THERE IS NOT A CONTRACT TO SIGN like home alarm systems.
They will have an alarm similar to home alarms so if there is a break in. They have the choice of necklace type personal alarm or watch type. They have certified 911 personnel and it will be a 3 way conversation so you will be able to instruct EMTs etc as to what you want done.
I found them when I first joined this site.
Having said that, I never understood why there seems to be two rules for medicaid. Under expanded medicaid, it's no longer asset based. It's solely income based. So you can be worth a billion dollars and if you make less than $10K year you can be on expanded medicaid. Yet the older asset based system still seems to be in effect for older people. I guess there's a age limit to expanded medicaid and people get switched over to the older asset based medicaid.
There’s also: http://info.iamfine.com/pricing/
1) Get a pendant phone. This phone will replace the house phone. It will come with a base station that replaces the house phone and come with a pendant that she can wear around her neck like those well known pay per month services you see on TV.
amazon.com/VTECH-SN6187-CareLine-Caller-Pendant/dp/B00CE3YJ9O
2) Setup a google voice number. You can attach many numbers to a google voice number. It will ring all those numbers when the google voice number is called. So this one phone number will ring all your family members as long as you add them to the google voice account.
google.com/voice
3) Program the google voice number into the pendant.
Whoever wearing the pendant can simply hit the pre-programmed call out button and it will call all your family members. Other than the cost of the home phone service, which I assume you already have, there is no additional monthly cost.
This solution works in the house. If you need a solution with mobile service that works everywhere, that will not be much harder and the cost will be low. There are similar simple mobile phones for the elderly and kids. You can pay for 100 minutes of cell phone time that doesn't expire for about $10. 100 minutes for only emergency service can last a lifetime.
Not sure where you reside, but we are in Canada and for my dad, who lives on his own, we use this. It’s a one time purchase price of $420 Canadian. It has no monthly fee. It works with the use of calling cards from 711 stores -on line - the convenience store. It’s waterproof. You wear it around your neck with a breakaway concept so if you get it caught you won’t hurt yourselves. It has fall detection that can be adjusted for sensitivity. It has a button the wearer can push if help is needed, or the wearer can be contacted directly and vice versa with loved ones. You get the 1st calling card included for $35, and load more on line as you need it. You can program up to 5 people including 911. It begins sending text messages and then phones them next. Costs are 10 cents for each text, 40 cents for phone calls. You can stop the chain of events when you speak to the loved one by pressing 1 into your phone or the wearer can stop it themselves. Works good when your loved one does not answer daily phone calls - you can connect with them through the device directly. Requires to be put in a modem for charging 1 hour each day. I think they operate out of Alberta Canada. It also has GPS to locate where they are.