Your parent lives alone and is doing fine – for the most part. They manage the house, do even the more difficult household chores on their own, and insist firmly that he don’t need any special help. They want to continue to be seen as hale and hearty.
But last night, you called at nine and they didn’t pick up. You waited ten minutes, then called again – but nothing. For the next half an hour, you sat there worrying whether you should drive across or have someone go check on them. When they finally rang back, you had already played out ten different scenarios in your head. That gap is what families want solved.
It’s not just about knowing when a parent falls – it’s about doing away with that daily dread of not knowing anything at all. Of having the reassurance that they’re simply living their day without needing to check on them constantly to prove it. At the same time, you don’t want to have them feel spied on, invaded, patronized, and stripped of their independence. But most children resort to waiting by the phone or hovering over a parent who wants to protect their privacy.
That’s not a peaceful way for either of you to live. Finding a way to keep your parent safe while protecting their privacy can help both of you reclaim your time.
Wearable Pendants
Wearable pendants have been the default safeguard for a long time, before advancing technology gave rise to modern and more efficient systems to use. They’re lightweight devices that older adults can wear around their necks and imply pressing the button on the lanyard when feeling unwell to send out the signal that help is needed. From a privacy standpoint, such add-ons may seem privacy-first on paper because they’re not filming the living room. But the thought of being monitored via GPS and leaving with a bright emergency button around the neck makes many feel like they don’t have privacy at all. This makes many simply leave their devices at home. And then, there’s the functional flaw. People are dizzy, lightheaded, and unaware that they’re going to fall. In the shock of the moment, pressing that button isn’t the first thing one thinks about.
Notably, the outcome of a fall isn’t determined by the fall as much as it’s determined by how long someone lies there before they receive help. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Gurley et al. highlighted how critical the time gap is: mortality was 12% among those found within an hour of becoming helpless, rising to 67% among those who lay helpless for more than 72 hours. Among those who survived, 62% didn’t manage to return to their normal life and live independently. That’s why compliance matters more than the device itself.
Smartwatches
When it comes to responding to falls, many smartwatch models have GPS tracking, step counting, and fall detection. However, families that turn to them often fail to realize how many moments a smartwatch just sits idle. They’re battery hogs and need to be charged almost daily. To be worn throughout the day, people leave them charging at night. Chances are that the older adult going to the bathroom or the kitchen during the night won’t remember to grab them on their way there. Plus, they’re made to catch hard and impactful crashes, like stumbling down stairs. But not all falls are that dramatic.
When considering privacy, smartwatches open up a new set of questions. They imply sensitive data, accounts, app permissions, cloud syncing, and other requirements, monitoring data and health metrics continuously when permission is given, and keeping data that adults aren’t even aware they’re giving away.
Ambient Radar
Ambient radars take a completely different approach compared to the solutions found in this guide. They don’t force the older adult to remember to wear and charge any device, aren’t visually intrusive, and don’t record the private lives of those living inside the house. The sensor looks like a smoke detector and works like one in reverse: it registers movement in the room without producing any image. There is no lens and no microphone, so there is nothing to leak, hack, or feel watched by.
Such systems work in complete darkness because they register radio waves instead of imagery, which preserves your older adult’s personal dignity. This matters because such a system can safely be placed in the bathroom, where most trips and falls happen, without invading anyone’s privacy. There’s also no battery to drain overnight, no pendant sitting on a nightstand, and no need for your older adult to stay conscious just to call for help. Of course, there’s no such system that can promise to track every type of fall. But for the accuracy implied and, more importantly, for complete privacy, many modern households opt for radar-based fall detection for the safety it offers.
Cameras
It’s comforting to know that you can keep an eye on your elder at all times, realizing when they’re not feeling well and when they need help. That’s why many install cameras, using the designated app on their phone and being able to rewind to see how a fall occurred in such an instance, determining the gravity of the accident. But let’s be honest: no one wants to feel a breath down their neck at every step. Plus, they record and transmit video data between devices, content that’s streamed to the company’s cloud servers. Private footage can be exposed if the company suffers a data breach – footage that can be exposed online. Then, there’s the risk of having such content stolen if someone gains access to the user’s password. If more people have access to the older adult’s private life, then multiple endpoints act as cybersecurity vulnerabilities and as reasons for them to feel uncomfortable.
Important questions to ask before choosing a system
1. How does the system react to slow falls?
Many systems rely on high-impact crash detection to trigger signals, which implies falls from considerable heights or unconscious falls – but not all falls. Make sure the technology used tracks movement sequence and not just abrupt thuds.
2. Can it protect the older adult during nighttime and bathroom visits?
Many falls happen during the night and in bathrooms, making it critical to have a monitoring system made for these instances. It has to operate in dark and wet environments, 24/7.
3. What happens in the case of an emergency?
Find out who is the first to be contacted when the system detects a fall. Is it 911? A designated family member? A live monitoring center?
4. Where is the data stored over time?
Verify which information is stored, who has access to it, and whether visual content is completely safe.
