Personal Alarm Query

Fearnodarkness

Registered User
Jun 10, 2014
38
0
It would probably be a good think if my (90s, lives alone, physically sound and well but increasingly losing her memory) had a personal alarm in case she has a fall.

The problem is that she calls us several times a day, nearly always forgetting that she has called before, sometimes indignant that she "hasn't spoken to anyone for days", often trying to get to my husband while he is working (though she says that this is the last thing she wants to do ... ) The only shelter we have is to take the phone off the hook for a while, and I intercept all the calls as my work is less disruptable than his (difficult, mathematical design) work is. If she has an alarm that goes to a call centre, it's likely that she will treat it the same way. If they then call us, we will be getting even more calls.

Can anyone tell me how alarm call responders deal with this? Do they question/triage callers before passing on to carers/family?
 

Jessbow

Registered User
Mar 1, 2013
5,678
0
Midlands
You have to assume she will press the button rather than call you......?
My mother didn't have a clue what the button was for, and took it off at exactly the times she might have needed it.

Invest in an answerphone and record a message so at least she gets someone speaking to her.Resist the urge to pick up the phone unless she sounds distressed.

In my experience, when on the odd occasion I pressed the button the call centre were wonderful. They are quite used to people pressing for a chat
 

Fearnodarkness

Registered User
Jun 10, 2014
38
0
Thanks for the info about your mother taking the alarm off. Any alarm would be just for emergencies, ie if she had a fall and could not get to the phone. Otherwise she will just call us, but I am concerned that she would start pushing the alarm button in the same way. I'm worried just about any company getting repeat "blank" calls. I must try and speak to some of them and find out how they manage. Do you mind saying which company you use? No worries if you don't want to.

One of our advisers was very keen on our having the "local authority alarm" as they apparently call up once a week to "check on the person". We don't need someone from the alarm company to call her - we are trying to encourage not to talk to people on the phone she doesn't know, because of the scams and sales calls. We check on her, so I want it to be a company that will take instructions from us, not from the local authority ...
 

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