Medical Alert Systems-- Serious Question Here
 

Hi Villagers! First time posting here, but I have a serious question. TV is promoted as an active community and it's all about living your best life. Do people wear medical alerts here? I live alone and like the idea of having 24/7 protection if I need it. Curious to know how others feel about this topic?

I have never understood why people would pay a monthly fee to call a service that is just going to call 911. Why not carry a cell phone with you at all times? Unless I am missing something.

Truth we all have freedom of choice. The original poster. I'm not sure what they are asking.
Medical alerts is a broad term. Could mean a necklace saying they are allergic to ????????

The same question, I regularly ask. Why know or CARE, what others choose to do. I think people can be chipped as is done for pets. What is the chance that a medical tech would know to look for that or have the equipment to read it. Many have all their important information on a cell phone. After taking your wallet, with your money and ID a mugger will take your cell phone. Perhaps, one with their left hand and the other with their right hand.

Because others have ideas I haven't thought of yet and have experience that I could benefit from. The only way I would learn about that is by asking.

For the OP: I do not feel my current health requires paying for a medical alert subscription. I almost always have my phone with me and have emergency information stored there. I also always carry my driver's license and my Villages ID; my hope is that between the two of those and the information on my phone someone would be able to reach my emergency contact.

If I were to fall in my house and injure myself such that I could not reach my phone then I would be in trouble. At this point in time I believe the risk of that happening is very low.

Would you wear a medical alert?
 

Hello! I am new here. Do Villagers wear medical alert systems?

Thanks for your replies. Much appreciated!

Why would it matter if Villagers did or did not wear a medical alert system? If I needed one, I would certainly wear it! My health and well-being is worth it to me and leaves no room for vanity to prevent wearing one. Come the day I need it - I will have it and wear it.

I would interfere with the shock collar that my wife had installed on me. It zaps me if I don't use my blinker in the car or cart. :cryin2:

But does it work when ya forget to turn the blinker off after the turn?

I have all sorts of lights facing toward:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::jester: me that blink if I leave the blinkers on. She loves to zap me with that damn collar.

You should see where the collar was installed when I was a youngin! This is a family-style forum, can't be specific.
:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::jester::wave:

I am sure some have it. It is piece of mind. Pushing 1 button is easier than calling 911.

OP, you may have one and not realize it, some of the newest watches have accident detection capability. The one I have knows my pulse, I am sure if I paid for the subscription service I would be able to set up a warning for pulse too high or too low. I have seen other units with lots more capability. Your cell phone can also act as a emergency location device, we have 911E in this area.
My point, I am not sure a separate device and service is required. An app and possibly a small device will give you the same capability.

I believe Apple has a "Sudden Impact Watch", (or something like that), which can detect a fall and automatically call for help. I believe you have a certain amount of time to stop the watch from calling in the case of a false alarm.

My Apple Watch does all those things and detects "falls". The problem is, if I'm at home I'm likely not wearing my watch because it needs charging. If I'm taking a shower, I'm not wearing it ... just because. If I'm doing some sort of work on my home, I might not be wearing it.

All those circumstances are the most likely situations for a "fall" or some other mishap. The majority of accidents happen at home, when I'm least likely to be wearing my watch.

My spouse wears the medical alert by "Lively" around the neck, it's a rectangular silver-colored device w/black cord & magnetic closure, fairly modern-looking. We bought 2 units to avoid 3 hours of "down time" when recharging is necessary (considering that via Murphy's Law, the 3 hours not wearing it would be when a crisis would occur). Not a candidate for the Apple watch with fall detection as your cellphone needs to also be IOS/Apple (not Android/Samsung etc.) for the watch's fall detection to operate. At the time I inquired, I was told Samsung was in the process of developing an Android watch with fall-detection but I'm not aware of the status of that technology.

The folks monitoring the Lively system have come online via the unit's speaker several times due to falls that were detected but not requiring help; first a recording stating that a fall was detected is heard on the unit's speaker, after which a live person inquires whether you are ok or need help. If you respond that you're ok, the call is concluded. If they get no reply, their next step is to either phone a contact number (if you have provided one at set-up) or to call 911 to have someone sent to the home. When I was away from the house, I had set up the system to phone me after a fall detection to help ascertain my spouse's condition, which they successfully did. Twice, we did need to initiate the device to request a call for paramedics, who arrived very promptly.

The system (in our area) uses Verizon, and when I balked about spotty service with cellphones using Verizon, the Lively tech offered that these devices generally don't have connection issues due to their being simple, without the various apps on cellphones.

I will add that one huge benefit was that during the times we needed to use the service, the Lively tech who connected us to the local 911 got through to them in a way that seemed more direct, without a long "hold" time and avoiding some of the general 911 operator triage questions I've been asked as just a random individual calling 911 by phone.

Though I'm not the one regularly wearing the device, whenever I engage in moderately strenuous exercise when no one else is nearby, I consider it prudent to do so with of these units around my own neck.