Emergency Contacts: Who should I choose?

Emergency Contacts are a very important part of our personal alarm service, which has been designed to help older, frail and disabled people to remain in the comfort of their own homes. Having an alarm is particularly helpful if you live alone.

According to demographic data released by Statista, there were 1.2 million woman aged 75 and over were living alone in the UK last year. There were also 577,000 men aged over 75 living alone during in 2016.

This data is concerning, given that older people are most at risk of suffering a fall. According to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence:

Around 30% of adults who are over 65 and living at home will experience at least one fall a year (approximately 2.5 million people in England).

The personal alarm provides older people and their families with peace of mind, by giving those who live alone somebody to call should they fall or feel unwell. Our system connects you to our 24/7 Care Team, who will respond immediately in an emergency situation and will send help to your home.

This article will take a closer look at emergency contacts, explaining the criteria you should be thinking about when selecting them and how they come into play once you push your MyAmie Pendant.

Choosing your Emergency Contacts

Once you have ordered your personal alarm you will receive a new customer form to complete. Within this form there is an emergency contacts section, where you can list a number of people who should be contacted by our Care Team in an emergency.

Commonly, our customers choose family members, friends and neighbours to act as they contacts. We would advise that you choose people who live quite close to your home, so that they can get to you as soon as possible should you require their help.

In order to join our service you will need to have one emergency contact on your account. We would advise that at least two people are chosen as emergency contacts. Your list can be changed or updated at any point, simply give our friendly team a call and they can make these changes for you.

Your emergency contacts are the people our Care Team will contact first should you press your pendant, so please think carefully when choosing who you would like on your list.

What happens when I press my pendant?

Once you have pushed your pendant, either after falling or due to health concerns, the Care Team will receive an alert and will respond over the Lifeline Vi Alarm unit’s loudspeaker. A member of the team will speak with you, assess the situation and take the appropriate action.

This will involve calling the emergency contacts who selected during the set-up process. The Care Team will begin calling the people you selected, starting from the top of your list and working their way down until they get a response.

Once connected, the Care Team will inform your emergency contacts that you have had a fall at home and require urgent assistance. Without an alarm, your family, friends and neighbours would have no idea that something bad had happened to you.

If the Care Team are unable to reach any of your emergency contacts, they will automatically call for the emergency services. Should you need medical help because of your fall, the Care Team will call for the emergency services alongside your emergency contacts.

Your medical information will also be passed on to the paramedics so that they are in the best possible position to help you once they arrive.

How a Key Safe can help

A Key Safe is a great way of ensuring that your emergency contacts and paramedics can get into your home once you have pressed your pendant. If your emergency contacts cannot be reached by our Care Team, how will the emergency services get in if your door is locked?

Customers with a Key Safe pass on their code to our Care Team, who can then share this with paramedics and any emergency contacts who don’t have their own key. The time saved here could make all the difference.

Our Key Safe options include:

• Outside Security Key Safe – Our cheapest and smallest Key Safe.
• Yale Y500 – Manufactured by security specialists, Yale.
• Burton Keyguard Digital XL – Approved by the Police and Secured by Design Scheme.
• Supra C500 – Approved by the Police and can hold up to six keys.

Having a Key Safe can improve the overall security of your home. Rather than leaving your spare keys under plant pots and doormats, places that criminals will check, you can keep them inside a secure box and password.

Have a question? Find out more about the personal alarm

For more information on purchasing one of our life-saving personal alarms, please speak to one of our friendly advisors on 0800 999 0400. Alternatively, complete our contact us form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Alternatively you can have a read of our in-depth guide to the personal alarm.