At 08:54 AM 12/1/2006, you wrote:
I'm looking for a way to provide emergency help for a senior in the
house. I have found a lot of services like:
Well, I have my 86 year old father with me. The problems are, ...
will the senior co-operate, and carry the device at all time, ...
is the hearing of the person good enough to hear you, or even the
signal from the device, ... and is there much of a learning curve,
particularly if there are memory issues involved.
The only thing I have found, to date, that works for me, is the
Motorola Walkabout, which is available anywhere. They not only are
walkie talkies, but there is a single button on them. Press it, and
it sends, and emits a series of tones to alert the other party. What
I have done is to put a big, bright red dot on the signal button.
Then you can tell the senior to just press the red button. These also
come in handy when you need to leave them in the car while your in
the store or somewhere.
I suggest you have daily practice sessions at first, and later maybe
weekly. Your biggest problem with this is getting them to carry it
all the time and remembering how to use it. The Talkabout is about
the size of weight of cell phones say six years ago. The other
problem with this approach, besides the co-operation of the senior,
is the battery life, which is 24 hours. You can buy them with a
rechargeable ni-cad battery pack, that has a recharger they just drop
it into, but it would be a lot nicer if they would last as long as a
cell phone on stand by. What you are going to need to do is buy two
of the Talk about kits, so that you have two charger bases.
You can find these just about every where on line. And Home Depot
sells them in their stores.
Lately, I have seen advertisements for a cell phone that is aimed
entirely at seniors called " Jitterbox". It is a big basic cell phone
that anybody who can dial a phone can use. You could set the redial
button to dial your number, and with caller ID the senior doesn't
have to be able to talk. Again, depending on their mental state, the
problem will be getting them to carry it with them all the time.
Let me know if you find something better
m
