Fallen Elders: A Button Can Save Their Lives

(Sept. 23) -- When Ron Campbell, a volunteer with Delaware's New Castle County police, saw a red alert on the computerized dialing system early this month, he knew there might be a problem. A 76-year-old woman, living alone in Bellefonte, had failed to answer repeated phone calls. Campbell contacted a neighbor, who discovered that the woman was lying in bed, disoriented and ill; she was rushed to the hospital.

A few days earlier, an 83-year-old woman was asleep in her Smithton, Pa., home when she was attacked by two would-be thieves. During the struggle, she managed to push the button on her medical alert bracelet. The state police were there within minutes, but the intruders had fled.

Such rescues are routine but little-noted events in communities across the country. In survey after survey, the vast majority of older Americans express their desire and determination to age in place, in their own homes. And when they become frail, millions of them rely on some sort of system that will bring help if and when they need it.

Bonita Beatty has an intimate knowledge of the dangers facing the elderly, both personally and professionally. Her parents, who live on their own in a rural area of upstate New York, have just celebrated their joint 90th birthday and 65th wedding anniversary.

"When an older person has a medical emergency," Beatty told AOL News, "the sooner the care arrives, the more you reduce the chance of serious injury or even death."

To speed up the response to an emergency, she has bought a medical alert system for her parents' home.

"It took a bit of coaxing to get them to wear the pendants," she said, "but they recognized, with their hearing not so great, one of them could fall and the other in a different room wouldn't know it. It's given me and them some peace of mind."

In her professional life, Beatty is vice president for injury prevention with the National Council on Aging in Washington, D.C. She also leads a coalition of 70 national organizations and 35 state groups dedicated to reducing the growing number of falls among the elderly.

More than 18,000 older Americans died from injuries related to falls in 2007 -- up from 10,300 in 2000. In 2008, more than 2 million senior citizens were treated in emergency rooms for fall-related injuries.

In fact, Beatty's coalition is behind National Falls Prevention Awareness Day, which by no accident is today, the first day of the fall season. The goal is to get older people to adopt behavior that will cut back on the incidence of falls by becoming more physically active, making sure their medications are not fall-inducing and eliminating unsafe conditions in their homes.

"We can't prevent all falls," she said, "but when it does happen, it's important to have some way of getting help fast."

There are dozens of devices and approaches that can do the job.

The best-known medical alert systems -- promoted by those TV ads, "I've fallen and I can't get up" -- consist of a bracelet or necklace sporting an emergency button. By pressing the button, you send a signal through a unit connected to your telephone to a call center, and an operator responds.

You can usually hear and speak to the operator from any room, but if you don't answer, for whatever reason, the operator will start calling your list of contacts.

Video offers a more intimate, and expensive, solution. In some systems, cameras are set up around your house (with the exception of the bathroom), and company personnel keep watch over you on monitors at their headquarters.

Another approach relies on motion sensors. Operators are alerted if you fail to follow your regular daily regimen -- if you don't get out of bed by 9:30 a.m., for example.

Check-in programs represent a whole different tack. Floridian elders who register with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, for instance, can indicate the time of day they wish to be called. If they don't pick up, an alert message is played at headquarters and emergency help summoned.

"Thank goodness," said Ashley Bailey, the crime prevention officer, "nobody has needed to be saved." The cash to pay for the system, she added, was confiscated during a drug raid.

The Pelham, N.H., police rely on a more personal check-in system. You register and then are expected to call the police communications center between 7:30 and 11 a.m. each day. If you don't call or answer a call from the center, an officer is dispatched to your home.

I could find no reliable guide to help older people or their children choose among the myriad commercial medical alert products on the market. Consumer Reports has looked into the matter and decided to pass, citing "logistical challenges."

One of the challenges the company cites is uncertainty as to whether the elders who have a pendant, say, will actually wear it 24/7. Stories abound of pendants hung over bedposts and of older people taking off their bracelets in the shower, even though the bracelets are waterproof and showers are a notorious venue for falls.

The task of finding a medical alert that fits your needs and pocketbook is daunting. What seems certain, though, is that if you want to maintain your independence in spite of aging's physical toll, at some point you are going to have to rely on the kindness, and efficiency, of strangers.