Life Alert or something similar?

We are also considering one for my dad so I am interested too.

Be sure to get one that doesn't have to be charged. My brother's FIL didn't charge his and ended up spending possibly 12 hours on the floor. No one knows for sure. He was finally able to crawl to a telephone and call 911.

I got Mobile Help for my parents. We got two wrist bands and paid extra for a fall alert button for my dad. They have been great to work with and I thought it was the best cost wise. We needed something with GPS because my dad was still mowing grass and I wanted him to have a way to contact us if he had trouble with his mower or tractor. If you don't need GPS and can use a system that just works within so many feet of a base unit, you might find something a little cheaper.

There was another thread about this a few months ago.

My Mom uses Life Alert. She has no alarm system or internet, which really limits the choices. The Peas recommended them too.

We used Bay Medical for my mom. She didn't like wearing the necklace at first but after she got used to it she forgot about it. There are different types of systems. She never had to use it so I can't really say how good it is.  Bay Medical link

My mom has "Great Call" and it works well. She lives about 5 minutes from me but is alone at her house. She had a bad fall in Feb 2017 very early in the morning and fractured her pelvis in multiple places. Fortunately my mom was wearing her call box and actually used it! (She has had many falls over the past few years and while she has been good about wearing her machine, she typically would not press the button and instead would manage to get to a phone and call me to come pick her up.) Thank goodness she had the presence of mind to use it this time. Help arrived within 5 minutes and were already handling the situation by the time they called to tell me. I am so thankful that she uses it and realizes the importance.

Highly recommend them!

This is so true.  My mom has worn her lanyard for years but still avoided ever using the call button when she fell.  She would manage to scoot across the floor until she could reach a phone and then call me instead.  I am thankful when she really needed it she was wearing it and it worked!  She tells me all the time about friends of hers who have a system but never wear the unit-- can't do much good if it isn't with you.  My mom's is waterproof so she even wears in the shower.

I got the Medical Guardian system for my mom. The devices are all basically the same, what you are paying for is the service of the call center.

A good question to ask the company is where is their call center located. MANY, including ones mentioned in this thread, are overseas. Is their call center certified and by who; UL vs ETL vs IAED; know the difference.

Ask about the cancellation policy. Do you need other language? Does your parent have hearing loss that would prevent them from hearing the dispatcher at the call center. You can’t test it except at home so know the return policy if your parent can’t hear the dispatcher from parts of the home.

Know your parents lifestyle. For example my mom doesn’t drive anymore, so we didn’t need locator service, we didn’t need a mobile system. My moms house is 900 square feet so we didn’t need a separate base unit.

Do you want a monitored system vs. unmonitored?

Do you need fall detection. Also be aware of fall detection “false positives “.

Good luck!
www.consumerreports.org/medical-alert-systems/how-to-choose-a-medical-alert-system/