Mom is in a continuing care community and her IL apartment does require she check-in to the front desk each day. It's a small community so staff know all residents. While Mom implies she's socializing every day, I'm hearing from other residents that she is not. So if Mom becomes a hermit but is still eating and checking in, will that raise any alarm bells? My BIL pays for once a week cleaning service so someone does check on her once a week, too.
Then offer to pay for it. ;)
Man in hoarder house trapped under debris. Not found for days. (Heard this from the village employee who broke into the house to find him. He'd died.) Woman fell in her home one afternoon and laid there until the next afternoon when her son couldn't reach her by phone and drove over to her home. (Heard this from Tom, my S.O. It was the mom of one of his clients. She'd broken her hip.) Woman passed out in her bathroom, assumed from her diabetes. Found dead 8 hours later when another member of the household...stone deaf...couldn't get in the bathroom to use it and called another family member. (Shirt-tail family)
They most certainly save lives. Oh, and when mom (who lives with me) fell and broke her hip? Her alarm went off without her activating it. (I was 10 feet away in another room.)
It's one of those things you don't need until you do.