I'm looking for a elderly medical alert device that works between houses, not a service?

If I understand what you are saying you want to be able to have and use a device which will enable an elderly or disabled person to push a panic button and have it directed to your house next door, instead of directed to a service which will call 911 and alert those services of a medical emergency. I hope this is correct.

First off I cared for an elderly gentleman for two and a half years who needed such a device. He was constantly falling and unable to get up, or just needed some assistance to the bathroom sometimes when he was extra stoved up.

This is what we did: We abtained the service which was actually free for the panic button. Then, instead of having it configuared to notify 911, we configuared it to notify me first, by dialing my phone number. When he pushed the panic button my phone would ring. I would answer it and an electronicly recorded "voice" would inform me that there was an emergency at ---------- and it would state his address and/or phone number.

We obtained this service through our counties In Home Supportive Services program, which was an area within Adult and Childrens Services of our county. I was his IHSS worker, and also his adopted great grand daughter.

It only took one week of constantly being woken in the middle of the night to get him to understand the button was not to use like a call button for a nurse at a hospital. Smile. During that first week, I got on average three phone calls of "emergency--emergency at ----------, and I would grab my robe jump into the car and drive around the corner and find he only was seeing if I would actually come!! He was blind and totally dependant upon me. His IHSS workers prior to me would often not show up when they were suppose to go to his house to work. They would try to get him to sign time sheets where they had not done hardly any of the hours he was allotted for the time period. So, when I first began providing his care, he has serious trust issues and was scared because some of those workers were verbally and physically abusive too. I will never understand how anybody could strike or say hatefull things to a nintytwo year old man!!

Anyway, after the first week, he stopped pushing the button just to "test" me. The button worked great for us. It enabled me to be able to get to him when he fell and could not get up by himself. Something I could do without tying up the 911 emergency system in our small town.

I reccommend you contact your local county adult and childrens services for advice on obtaining this type of service. I don't know if it will be free of charge if you are not working for that agency as a In Home Nurses Aid. However, the agency can point you in the right direction or even give you a phone number to call.

I think it is great you and your family are taking care of each other. More families need to take care of their own members, keep their older members in their own homes rather than just send them off to an "old folks home".

Good luck finding what you need.