Home Medical Alert system?

[Catrin]

My Mom has one of those med alert units in her Florida place and it does connect to the landline. However, the laundry room is outside her villa and the med alert unit wouldn't be of assistance if she fell out there-- out of range. We looked into the SPOT Personal Tracker...
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=101
This was a promising option, but we didn't get her one since she ended up planning to come up north shortly thereafter. We simply got her a lanyard for her cell phone so she could have it on hand when she did her laundry in the meantime.

Hmmmm, this is interesting. Mom does have a cell phone, so perhaps your lanyard solution would be an appropriate option as well. I suspect the SPOT unit wouldn't be much different in size, and perhaps be larger. Good food for discussion with my sister.

Mom is 71, and while she does have health issues, I think she does pretty good for someone who has had cancer, and a few chronic health problems. She is moving in with my sister more for financial reasons at this point, and I am looking for ways that I can help out. I don't have a lot myself, but I don't want all of the burden to be on my sister. While my relationship with my mother has been far from normal for my entire 51 years, she still IS my mother...Thanks for the comments!

[malkin]

If you can help your sister with some respite, I'm sure they'll both appreciate it.

[Catrin]

If you can help your sister with some respite, I'm sure they'll both appreciate it.

I would if I were closer than 500 miles away...but I get down when I can.

[HillSlugger]

We're setting my mom up with one this coming week. It will be tied into a landline.

[OakLeaf]

I wouldn't recommend a SPOT for that application. Too big, too heavy, no easy way to carry it on one's person. Reportedly, battery life on the new units is less than one day - the long distance moto people have been complaining bitterly about it.

They're more for active people on day trips out of cell phone range. Like us cyclists.... In spite of the short battery life, the new SPOTs are small and light enough to carry on a bici, unlike the old ones. But they're still more the size of a camera than a phone.

Drifty, but there's no age at which "the conversation" is more or less appropriate than any other age. Says the one who nearly broke my neck last month and STILL haven't tightened up my Living Will as I've been meaning to do for over a year.

[jessmarimba]

If you have old cell phones that you haven't recycled, I believe they're still able to dial 911 even if they're deactivated. So perhaps leaving them strategically around the house might be a temporary solution?

[Catrin]

If you have old cell phones that you haven't recycled, I believe they're still able to dial 911 even if they're deactivated. So perhaps leaving them strategically around the house might be a temporary solution?

Perhaps - but if she falls and can't get to one...perhaps the temporary solution is to just make sure she always has a pocket to put her phone in...