Medical alert systems, which have been around since the 1980s, provide a wearable help button — usually in the form of a neck pendant or wristband — that would put your mom in touch with a dispatcher who could summon emergency help or contact a friend or family member.
To help narrow the options and choose a system that best fits your mom’s needs, here are three key questions you’ll need to ask, along with some top-rated companies that offer these products.
1. Does your mom want a home-based or mobile system?
Medical alert systems were originally designed to work inside the home with a landline telephone, which is still an option. Since fewer and fewer households have landlines these days, most companies also offer home-based systems that work over a cellular network. With these systems, pressing the wearable help button allows you to speak to a dispatcher through a base unit located in your home.
Many companies offer mobile options. You can use these systems at home, but they’ll also allow you to call for help while you’re out and about.
Mobile alerts operate over cellular networks and incorporate GPS technology. They allow you to talk and listen to the operator directly through the pendant button, and, because of GPS, your location would be known so help could be sent.
2. Should her system be monitored or not?
The best medical alert systems are monitored, meaning the help button connects you with a trained operator at a 24/7 dispatching center.
You also have the option to choose a system that isn’t monitored. When you press the help button, the device automatically dials a friend or family member on your programmed emergency call list. These products can often be set up to call multiple people and contact emergency services if you don’t get an answer from someone on your list.
3. Should you add a fall-detection feature?
Most medical alert companies today now offer the option of an automatic fall detection pendant for an additional fee of $10 to $15 per month. These pendants sense falls when they occur and automatically contact the dispatch center, just as they would if you had pressed the call button.
But this technology isn’t full proof. In some cases, this feature may register something as a fall that isn’t.
Top systems
Here are four top companies, rated by Consumer Reports, that offer home and mobile monitored medical alert systems:
