Living alone fears

I'm not ignoring you Hublady – I'm giving what you say some thought.

Thanks, absentgrana Seems to be much less posting on here than on Mumsnet.

I think if you live alone you should have one of those pagers that you wear round your neck. I know of someone that kept hers upstairs and had a bad fall downstairs; luckily someone came to visit her the next morning, otherwise I don't think she would have survived. I know of another lady that slipped on the ice last winter [again not wearing her pager] and would have died from hypothermia had someone not passed by and heard her]. I had a scare last winter; the S.O. was in bed with flu at the front of the house; I tripped over a branch in the back garden and realised that absolutely no one would hear me no matter how loud I shouted. Thanfully I hadn't broken anything [I'd gone straight down onto my bad knee on frozen ground]. It was getting dark and the temperstures at the time were way below freezing. Don't want to be a scaremonger, but it does make you think.

If ever I'm alone in the house I make sure I have my mobile phone with me at all times, upstairs or down, in the loo or out in the garden. If it's not in a pocket, then tucked temporarily inside my bra (if I go out to the shed for example)

Thanks for replies.

Crimson, do you know who those pagers connect to? The systems like that I've looked at are expensive, btw, and as you point out people often don't wear them when they have them.

Notsogrand, what if you don't manage to use the mobile (stroke, etc.) Sorry to be gloomy, but these things happen.

Not gloomy hub, just realistic!

I think they are expensive; I'll ask around. Always think it's a good idea to leave a key with a trusted neighbour as well. We're lucky in that we live in a cul de sac and everyone keeps an eye on each other. Like most things Age Concern are the people to contact for advice. I had a friend who sadly had a heart attack; because the lady who contacted the police was just an internet friend the police wouldn't listen to her when she assured him that they spoke every day and that something dreadful must have happened to him. Agree with Notsogrand; I've always been a 'belt and braces' person; once you have a plan in place you don't need to worry. Many years ago I had a close friend whose husband was working away and, because she was alone with a small baby, I phoned her every day to check that she was ok.

What if someone forget to text in hublady? How long before the ambulance came round?!

If someone forgot to text in, the hub would text to check if she was ok. If no reply, then the hub would contact the number the non-replier had given. This does not replace the normal ambulance service.

Sorry, missed a word out of my last post. It should read

If someone forgot to text in, the hub would text to check if she was ok. If no reply, then the hub would contact the emergency number the non-replier had given. This does not replace the normal ambulance service.

Could people not just work locally to establish a "safety circle" of friends and neighbours who know one another and can check up physically if there is no contact from someone?

I feel the circle should be kept small enough not to get out of control - opening it up online could lead to such a lot of participants that it failed to work just when it was most needed. Then it would be as bad as nothing. And it lends itself to some folk joining for the sake of joining something and then losing interest or forgetting to sign in.

Elegran, thanks for reply. Your idea would be very nice, but many do not have a potential circle like that - or if they did they would indeed have to 'work', as you say, to get it going.

How long would count as 'no contact'? and how would any member of the circle know that 'person x' has not in fact been in contact (they might have been in contact with another member)? So I think you would get diffusion of responsibility with a circle, as opposed to a hub system, where the hub monitors daily.

Actually I've realised that my system could get going with only two people.

The system we use here in our supported housing scheme cost's £13.33 per wk and for that we can have a visitor every day of the week or once a week which ever your need's require,we also have a key safe outside with a master key for emergency's and an alarm system which can pick up from anywhere in the flat even if a door is closed behind us at any time,every 2 week's we have a call from the main switchboard to test the emergency button's just to make sure everything is ok,this system is available to anyone who request's it via social service's,and whilst some will say it is expensive it is available to people who are in receipt of benifit's which enhance their pension's such as pension credit.

The emergency communicator systems that are sold privately can be expensive. However, when we needed somthing for FIL we got a free service via the local authorities Social Services. It does vary from area to area.