Back to Table of Contents
Back to Archives Main Page
Section: Being Well
 |
Toby Laping
Ph. D., C.S.W.,
Private Care Manager
|
|
Medical Alert Buttons
By Toby Laping, Ph. D., C.S.W.,
Private Care Manager
I’m sure you’ve seen those commercials on television in which a lady is lying on the floor. She sounds frantic and perhaps in pain. Luckily, she’s wearing a medical alert button which she pushes and she yells out, “Help, help. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
With apologies to the advertising agency, I find that ad very offensive but it works because I remember it, although I don’t know what company put it on the air. I suspect that ad introduced many people to the idea of a medical alert button about which they had never previously given any thought. For the right people, those buttons are terrific because they’re unobtrusive, quite inexpensive, and a good proactive measure.
People who are mentally clear so that they could keep their wits about them and act appropriately in an emergency, and particularly if they live alone or with someone who is often out or who wouldn’t know how to react in an emergency, are perfect candidates for such systems. They are a good way to interface safety with independence.
These systems work on telephone lines and are often installed within 24 hours of a request for service. The recipient wears a button around her neck or on a bracelet. If the button is pushed, a voice box next to the telephone calls to ask if she’s okay. If the wearer says she needs help or if she doesn’t answer, help is immediately summoned. However, if the button was pushed by accident, the wearer is told not to worry and to have a good day. These systems usually work within a radius of 300 feet of the box next to the telephone, so they can be worn outdoors, away from the phone. They can also be worn in the shower, an important point since bathrooms are well known as risky places.
In addition to the obvious use, let me point out one easy benefit. Some people find it difficult to stand up to cross the room to answer the telephone. When wearing a medical alert button, one need only push the button and say “hello”; the connection with the phone line means that pushing the button is a great way to answer the phone without needing to go to the telephone.
There are a number of comparable medical alert systems in Western New York. I recently spent some time talking with Linda Ash, the local representative for a national program known as Lifeline and for whom Visiting Nurses Association of Western New York is the local representative. Her system costs $50 to install; the monthly charge is $39. The cost may be covered by a Medicaid program known as the Long Term Home Health Care program.
I asked Linda for an example that would illustrate the value of these systems. Rather than telling me about someone who had fallen and needed help, she described another use: as a security system. She told me about a lady who lives in a town near Buffalo. That lady is blind but her medical alert button has been one facet of a system that has kept her functional and independent in her home. Recently, during the early evening, she heard noises by her back window so she pushed her medical alert button. When the system responded, she asked that the police be called. The police arrived minutes later and actually caught five young men who were preparing to break into her home. That client will be a lifelong supporter of these systems.
Linda Ash can be reached at 630-8624.
www.wnycaremanager.com
back to top
back to table of contents
|
|
|
