Communication System Supports Senior Safety

Photo by oosp. 

Wouldn't it be great if your parents could ring a bell and have servants come running?  21st Century technology offers help at their finger tips without the hassle of rigging the house with pull cords, ropes and bells--and without the expense of housing servants.

As our parents choose to age in place, it can be vital that they have the right kind of telephone system, one that is portable and has helpful features such as one-touch dialing, big buttons, reminder messages, and adjustable volume. 

Vtech Communications Ltd. has developed a product that has many features of a conventional phone system, but this product can increase functions if your parents' needs change.  Careline™ Home Safety Telephone System system has three components: 1) a touch-tone telephone base with corded handset 2) a cordless handset with its own charging base and 3) a pendant with its own charging base.  

Careline™ Home Safety Telephone System. 

The telephone base has four large buttons that you can program for one-touch dialing. You can add a photo that corresponds to each phone number: you, a neighbor, the local pharmacy, or 911.

The cordless phone has large buttons, a large display screen, volume controls, a speaker button and other features.

The wearable pendant phone has two one-touch dialing buttons. A parent might choose to program these to call an adult child's cell phone for one and 911 for the other.

The pendant is also able to receive phone calls, so if your parent doesn't reach their party with the first attempt, he or she can receive a return call.  Or if your parents are merely busy using both hands to fold laundry, garden or walking across the length of the house, they can still answer the pendant phone easily by just keeping the lanyard around their neck or on a clip (included) attached to a belt or pocket.

For more information about this product and its features, see this video:

Most of the time, our senior parents are capable of using their own resources to manage daily tasks so that they can remain independent. Once in a while, however, a situation arises that is out of the ordinary. Your parent could more easily access help if this telephone system is in place. 

For example, my own 73-year-old mother fell down two flights of stairs in January. She was retrieving something from her home office, which is located next to the stairs to the basement.  She lost her footing, fell down one flight of stairs, rolled through the 5' x 5' landing and fell down a second flight of stairs before she came to rest on the basement floor. Thank heavens the stairs to the basement and the basement floor are carpeted. Luckily, she  only suffered some minor bruising as a result of her fall.  

As she lay at the bottom of the stairs she realized that she could not yell loud enough to alert my step-father, who was in the master bedroom upstairs and across the length of the house.  It took her a while, but she was able to regain her composure and climb the stairs so that she could enter the bedroom where she spent the entire next day resting. 

If she had been wearing the pendant, she could have called my step-father with the one-touch dialing, and he could have come to her aid.  I live a 16 hour drive away in another state, so she might program a second button to call one of my two sisters who live near her.  Giving my mom this system would give her another tool for maintaining her independence and give me greater peace of mind about her safety, especially since I live so far away. 

I wrote this blog post on behalf VTech Communications, Inc. while participating in a campaign by BOOMboxNetwork.com and received payment for my participation. All opinions stated within are my own.

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