Suddenly, it seemed as if that old “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” TV ad had sprung to life.
Louise Macnair, a widow who is now 93, crashed to the floor in the living room of her Cambridge home and thought, “This is the occasion. I’ve got to push that button.” She did, and within minutes, the people at Lifeline Systems, Inc., the oldest and largest personal emergency response system — PERS, to the cognoscenti — called a neighbor whom Macnair had designated as a “responder.” Soon the neighbor and an ambulance arrived.
Macnair spent five months hospitalized with one complication after another from what turned out to be a broken hip. But in May 1995, to her great delight, she returned to the life she loved — living alone in her own home.
“I swear by it, Lifeline. I’ll sing its praises for anybody,” she says of the device that she believes allows her this independence. “It’s security. As long as I have that button, I know I can get help right away.”
Roughly half a million older people in the United States and Canada now have a PERS system, industry figures suggest, and those figures are growing slowly but steadily.
Most systems — there are more than 20 on the market — consist of a small radio transmitter worn on the wrist or around the neck (the help button), a console on the phone that receives the radio message and automatically dials a designated number, and a response center, where people answer calls and dispatch help. They are guided by computerized information given by the subscriber on whom to call in an emergency, including ambulances, doctors, hospitals, family members and neighbors.
But while some people use the systems just as inventors intended — to summon medical help — 95 percent now rely on it for another reason: to combat the isolation of living alone.
There is little doubt that as the ranks of older Americans swell, the need for both emergency medical assistance and psychological support for those living alone is increasing.
Fifty years ago, 10 percent of households had just one person, census figures show. Today, it’s up to 24 percent. And nearly half — 47 percent — of those over 85 live alone.
A recent San Francisco study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported that it is “common for elderly people living alone to be found helpless or dead in their homes,” and that timely help can save lives.
Among the 367 people studied — only one of whom had a PERS device — two-thirds of those who had been helpless for 72 hours or more died, compared to only 12 percent of those who had been helpless for less than an hour.
To be sure, many older people living alone — the majority of whom are women — truly enjoy it, says Scott Bass, the newly-appointed dean of the graduate school of the University of Maryland/Baltimore County. “They’re thrilled. They will thrive. They have resources. They’re alone but not lonely.”
But many others feel isolated living by themselves.
To combat this, some organize daily calling circles, the so-called “girls in the building” approach, says Al Norman, executive director of Mass HomeCare, a nonprofit consumer rights group. This “low-tech, high-touch” solution is often the best, he adds.
Others prefer formal programs, like the “friendly visitor” system run by some Councils on Aging that send volunteers to a person’s house regularly to play cards or just check in.
Some towns go even further. In Needham, the Council on Aging offers a “Ring Every Day” program in which volunteers call people who request it. In Franklin, the police department does likewise.
Still other older people rely on postal workers or Meals on Wheels drivers to make sure they’re up and about every day if friends or families can’t check in on them.
But growing numbers of older people — and the adult children who worry about them — are turning to high-tech solutions for the peace of mind that allows elders to live alone.
Some people who live alone, like Grace Marvin, 86, of West Roxbury, would never think of using their PERS system to assuage loneliness or fill the need to be checked up on.
“Oh, heavens no. I don’t call in to talk,” she says.
Nor does Beatrice Kadetsky, 88, of Chestnut Hill. “I could use somebody to talk to when I’m alone,” she concedes. “But I wouldn’t think of imposing on them.”
Thousands do, though, and PERS companies, far from considering such calls an imposition, are increasingly targeting their services toward these needs.
At Lifeline, for instance, CEO Ron Feinstein says the people who answer 10,000 to 12,000 calls a day in the company’s Cambridge center began to realize a few years ago that the overwhelming majority of calls were not emergencies.
Sometimes, he said, one ear cocked to the hum of phone calls around him, people “accidentally” hit the help button strapped to their wrists or hung around their neck, then linger on the line to chat when Lifeline calls back. Others call and openly acknowledge they just need someone to talk to, which is, he says, fine with Lifeline.
Fred Siegel, sales and marketing analyst for American Medical Alert, shares that view, noting that his company is starting a service whereby PERS operators will initiate regular check-in calls to subscribers.
Some companies also offer electronic monitoring through an “inactivity alarm,” a kind of timer built in to the PERS program. If the subscriber wants this service, she agrees to press a button at a certain time every day. If she doesn’t, the company calls her.
Other companies accomplish the same thing with motion detectors that trigger a call by the company if the subscriber does not move around within a certain amount of time.
Precisely because PERS programs, which cost about $1 a day, can offer peace of mind, they are now mainstream, says Norman. Since 1991, in fact, PERS programs have been part of the benefit package offered by the state to 33,000 home care recipients.
Ruth Harriet Jacobs, a sociologist at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women who was hired last year by Lifeline to visit and assess 25 subscribers, vouches for what PERS means to people.
“To tell you the truth,” she says, “I was dreading going out on these interviews,” assuming it would be “depressing to see people homebound and frail.”
But she and her colleague “completely reversed our thinking. We came away with tremendous admiration for these people,” she says. “I know this sounds like I’m a hired gun for Lifeline, but the truth is we found their homes meant a great deal to them, and their possessions. To stay out of a nursing home “was really important to them.”
All that makes Newton psychologist Andrew Dibner a happy man.
Twenty-two years ago, while Dibner was shaving one morning, it came to him in a flash that there must be some way for older people to signal for help if they couldn’t get to a phone. The result was the inactivity alarm, later the help button — and ultimately, Lifeline.
Now retired from Lifeline, Dibner is thrilled that his idea has caught on, especially, he says, because “we’ve done a lot of good.”
SIDEBAR:
To learn more
— 1-800-AGE-INFO begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-AGE-INFO end_of_the_skype_highlighting (800-243-4636 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-243-4636 end_of_the_skype_highlighting).
— For information on the “friendly visitor” or similar programs, call your local Council on Aging.
— For brochures on PERS, write to Product Report: PERS (D12905), American Association of Retired Persons, EE01054, 601 E Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20049.
The AARP recommends shopping around for PERS products and testing or renting a product in your home before buying it. Most systems cost about $1 a day and are not covered by insurance.
Some systems are marketed directly through hospitals and may be cheaper if you get them this way.
A partial list of companies offering PERS products follows:
Lifeline Systems, 1-800-543-3546 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-543-3546 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Pioneer Medical Systems, 1-800-234-0683 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-234-0683 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Medi-Mate (Colonial Medical Alert Systems), 1-800-323-6794 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-323-6794 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Good Neighbor Program of American Medical Response, Inc., 1-800-877-8978 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-877-8978 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
American Medical Alert, 1-800-645-3244 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-645-3244 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Responsibility Systems, Inc., 1-800-759-3227 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-759-3227 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
For more information on PERS or personal emergency response systems, call:
SIDEBAR:
To learn more
— 1-800-AGE-INFO begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-AGE-INFO end_of_the_skype_highlighting (800-243-4636 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-243-4636 end_of_the_skype_highlighting).
— For information on the “friendly visitor” or similar programs, call your local Council on Aging.
— For brochures on PERS, write to Product Report: PERS (D12905), American Association of Retired Persons, EE01054, 601 E Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20049.
The AARP recommends shopping around for PERS products and testing or renting a product in your home before buying it. Most systems cost about $1 a day and are not covered by insurance.
Some systems are marketed directly through hospitals and may be cheaper if you get them this way.
A partial list of companies offering PERS products follows:
Lifeline Systems, 1-800-543-3546 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-543-3546 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Pioneer Medical Systems, 1-800-234-0683 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-234-0683 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Medi-Mate (Colonial Medical Alert Systems), 1-800-323-6794 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-323-6794 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Good Neighbor Program of American Medical Response, Inc., 1-800-877-8978 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-877-8978 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
American Medical Alert, 1-800-645-3244 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-645-3244 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Responsibility Systems, Inc., 1-800-759-3227 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-759-3227 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
For more information on PERS or personal emergency response systems, call: