Four Reasons People Don’t Wear Medical Alert Devices: And Why You Should Ignore Them

Looking after your health as you get older doesn’t just mean eating well and getting exercise. It also means protecting yourself should you have an accident.

One of the most common causes of injury to an elderly person is due to a fall. Falls occur for several reasons. It could be your eyesight isn’t as good as it once was, or that you’re not as steady on your feet and your balance isn’t as good.

If you live with a partner or your family, there might be someone around to help you if you have an accident. But the fact is that after the age of seventy-five, 67% per cent of men and 35% of women are living alone.

So how do you protect yourself if you don’t have someone with you? The best solution is to wear a medical alert device. If you have a fall, someone will contact you in seconds to get you the help you need.

There are plenty of people who realise the benefits of a wearable alert device. According to the Center for Disease Control 35% of adults over the age of 65 use a medical alert system. But there are plenty of others who don’t want to use them, although they could.

Let’s look into some of the comments we’ve seen by researching the internet.

“I have a smartphone, so I don’t need a medical alert system.”

A phone can offer you some form of protection. You can use it to call the emergency services or a family member. But to make that call you must be conscious, and your phone must be within reach.

Have a look at the post written by Christianne Petersen Erwin on Quora. Her phone was on the kitchen table, and she couldn’t get to it. If she hadn’t been wearing a medical alert device, would she have got help in time?

If you lose consciousness, you can’t use your phone.

But if you had a PLA fall alert the system would connect to the call center as soon as it detected a hard fall.

The call center operative would call the emergency services automatically if you didn’t reply to their questions.

“I am not disabled; I don’t need a medical alert.”

A medical alert device is not only for people with disabilities. You can be active and still suffer from a fall.

Have a look at this study. It says, “Most older fallers report tripping as a reason for a fall.” Well, you can trip whether you’re healthy or disabled.

The report also says that independent older people were more likely to sustain an injury from a running or jumping activity. So being active doesn’t protect you from a fall.

Even if you aren’t disabled a fall when there’s nobody around to help you could have serious consequences.

“I am not into technology.”

Our medical alert devices are easy to set up. Just press the button to make an emergency call. They are designed to be simple and easy to use. Our Champion Smartwatch, for example, has only the features you will be happy using. There’s not a vast number of tiny and confusing icons you’ll need to identify to find the feature you want to use.

“I don’t want people to know I am wearing a medical alert device.”

People don’t have to know what you’re wearing. The PLA On-The-Go can be worn using a belt clip that you can hide with your clothes. The Champion Smartwatch looks just like any other smartwatch on the market.

You can buy watch straps in various colours. If you have difficulty using your hands then you can pick a flexible watch band in a colour that suits your style.

Wearing a medical device system doesn’t mean you’re old and past it. What it means is that you recognise the increased risk of an accident as you get older. And you choose to use a medical device system for protection and peace of mind.