I have an elderly lady living next door and she doesn't really seem to have anyone checking on her (I have never seen anyone coming to hers) apart from me and my partner every once in a while (usually she will pop by asking if we need anything and vice versa).

I'm a little bit paranoid about what would happen if she fell/collapsed in her apartment and couldn't call for help. It doesn't help that there is a dog living with her (I'm not gonna paint the picture, but I'm sure you heard the stories...).

I want to suggest to her to have some sort of SOS button that she could carry around the flat and, if something happens, she could press it to call for help.

I found this on aliexpress but it has it's own proprietary android app that I don't think would work on my GrapheneOS phone. Local, non-aliexpress options are pretty expensive and/or are subscription based.

Do you know of any alternative that wouldn't break a bank and would have more open source friendly system in place?

EDIT: I was thinking about a cheap wireless door bell (she would have the button - door bell would be in our flat). The problem is when we are away from home.

Perhaps a door bell with simple phone push notifications (my partner has a regular android phone so she could receive those)? Any product suggestions?

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[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You want something that she's comfortable with. A necklace or a bracelet/watch with a big red button that's also specifically made so you don't have too many false alerts. Because that happens all the times. People do chores and push the button inadvertently and older people don't want to bother people, so then they're ashamed of having too many false alerts and won't have it with them 24/7 out of false shame. So use something that's made for the purpose and not a doorbell.

Also it has to be obvious how to use it. Even when in distress at 5am after you've fell down and can barely remember what you're supposed to do. A necklace with one big red button will probably do it. Or something similar she can wear around your wrist.

There are also emergency phones with a red button on the back. (And watches with fall detection.) But you need to have a subscription for the phone to dial out. And it needs to be charged regularly. A RF button won't have those downsides.

I don't know which product to buy. But seems there are several ones out there < $50

Search keywords would be something like: elderly, emergency button, necklace, pendant, alert system, call button.

https://www.pflegerufset.de/ELDAT-RS16-Hausnotruf-mit-Armbandsender-mit-Quittierungssender/PRS10125

https://www.rollstuhl-senioren.de/hausnotruf-fuer-senioren/

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Emergency-Seniors-Bracelet-Monitor-Elderly/dp/B0B6VRN8JF/

https://www.amazon.de/Handsender-Hausnotruf/s?k=Handsender+Hausnotruf

https://www.tuerklingel-shop.de/Mobiler-Alarm-Notruf-Knopf-Funk-Senioren-Hausnotruf-Pflege-Ueberfall-2-Sender-Pflegedienst

Aliexpress also has some "Tuya Wifi Smart Sos button". But I'd probably go for something simple. A button that sends a RF signal and a receiver at your place that's making the audible alert. WiFi, bluetooth, Apps etc make it more complicated and more likely to fail.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More elderly female neighbor has a wrist button. We live in the paths of hurricanes soooo…if power/wifi goes down do they somehow transmit when wifi/cellular won’t? I can imagine battery backup, but I’m lost after that.

[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ask her. In my experience elderly people like to talk, have enough wisdom accumulated to share with younger people. And have few social contacts anyways so they usually like to talk to the neighbors.

Where I live the proper units have battery backup and are connected to a landline. And landlines sometimes(?) still work without the power grid. Also a certain percentage of cell towers are supposed to have battery backup for emergency purposes. They might stop connecting you to your random people, but still do emergency numbers.

But I don't know how things work in the US. The telephone network in Germany seems to be a bit different than the one in the USA. And we don't have hurricanes around here. We might also have less power outages in general.

And I'd need to ask if this is still the case today. My info is from 10 years ago. Old phone lines are getting replaced everywhere. I somehow doubt the new fibre connections work without power.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really dk and the 80+ female has dementia and gets confused so asking her is unreliable. She has good and not so great moments, with memory.

[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah. Yeah, dementia isn't a nice thing. Glad she's able to still live at home. I think it's a good thing we have technology like those wristbands that can assist with that.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Well, it’s not good. She’s never married or had kids, and I’ve never seen nor heard of nieces/nephews, never seen anyone’s faces over there but me and the guy.