Hi y’all,

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?

  • Voroxpete
    2·
    1 year ago

    As someone who literally designs nurse call systems for a living, this is lovely and well intentioned, but also utterly inane.

    You cannot be around someone 24/7. Even if you so much as step out to get groceries, that’s a window of time where something can go wrong.

    Nurse call systems save lives. That is a simple fact, and it’s why every nursing home is either expected or - depending on jurisdiction - required to have one.

    What you’re doing here is the equivalent of telling a cancer patient to try drinking ginger tea.

    • Maeve@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      Well I mentioned to him yesterday since his cell doesn’t work at home he should see if the VA would help him get a life alert like the 80+ woman about halfway between his and my house, and he asked if Medicare would pay for it. His brother told him since he’s older, a year shy of retirement age, partially disabled and a vet he may also qualify for Medicaid too, and you could see the lightbulb go on and said he’d see.