For many of us, these commercials were burned into our brains, not just because we saw them frequently but also because they became an object of humor.

One thing I’ve written about elsewhere is how the very idea of a medical alert rings all those bells about frailty and weakness. These commercials are a big part of that. I notice now that many websites about life alerts show younger and more active people. Buying a life alert is no longer considered only something that really old people do. I guess that’s progress. What do you think? Make a comment below the videos.

And here’s a parody version. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

I recently heard of two situations where an elderly person used their medical alert to summon help when they were the victim of a crime.

In the first case, a woman used her medical alert when her grown daughter was apparently trying to strangle her after an argument about money. She pressed the button and the emergency operator sent the police (even though the daughter apparently tried to talk them out of coming). The medical alert might have saved this woman’s life.

In the second case, an elderly person activated their medical alarm system when they heard someone break into their home. The police came and the woman wasn’t hurt.

The first example speaks to the benefit of having a monitored personal emergency response system, instead of a system that just dials friends & family. That’s because with a monitored system you’re guaranteed to have a trained responder picking up the phone. Imagine if the senior woman had been waiting and waiting while her system dialed several friends and family, none of whom were available.

Want to learn more about medical alerts? Start by downloading my free report, 5 Common Medical Alert Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. Then check out my overview of medical alert systems.

It’s really pretty simple.

Most monitored medical alert systems cost about $30 a month.

What about no-fee or autodialer medical alert systems? These are the ones that dial friends and family instead of a monitoring center. These cost from $100 to $300. The model I like best (Amazon link) goes for around $269.

The reason I like that particular model so much is that it’s got two-way communication through the pendant that you carry around. This means the unit will work when you’re inside the house and also when you’re in the garden.

How to save money on a medical alert:

Saving money on a medical alert depends on what type you’re buying.

With a monitored system you can sometimes save money by paying in advance. For example, if you pay for 12 or 24 months at a time, your cost might go down to $19.99 or $24.99 per month.

Is this worth it? Maybe. Usually you’re locking yourself in for the term of your prepayment. Different vendors have different policies, so be sure to check. You might want to start with the month-to-month price and then after you’re sure you like the system then pay for a chunk of time in advance.

Sometimes you an also save on installation fees if you pay for a few months in advance. But some companies don’t have installation fees at all, so do your research.

The only way to save money on a no-fee medical alert is to spend less money on the unit. You won’t have any ongoing costs for monitoring, so the unit is your only expense.

But in my experience the cheaper units are definitely not as high quality as the better ones. Some of the worst you see don’t even offer real two-way communication. They just dial a number and play a pre-recorded message, then they tie up your phone line for another two minutes or so before the person who just got a scary phone call can call back and talk to you about the problem, if they can even communicate through the base station (mostly these low-end units don’t have a microphone for you to talk to the person who responds).

An elderly woman who had a medical alert system was able to activate the system when a burglar broke into her home. She heard glass breaking and hid, then pressed the medical alert button.

In this case it sounds like she had a monitored medical alert service, and the operator who handled the emergency call was able to take quick action to alert the police and the woman’s daughter, who lived nearby.

Full story:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/09/2592511/womans-alert-necklace-stops-burglary.html

Turns out the medical alert system had been in place for eight years without being used, and the batteries had never been changed.

So when she pressed the button, there wasn’t enough juice left to activate the alert system. Her mother ended up lying on the floor with a broken hip for many hours.

I don’t have all the details – for example, I don’t know whether this was a monitored alert system or a no-fee system, but here’s what I do know:

1. You have to test your system regularly

2. You have to change the batteries regularly

I recommend setting up a schedule for testing your alert system. If you’re the child of an elderly parent, this is as simple as setting up an automatic reminder in your online calendar. On the first of every month you get a beep or an email reminding you about the need for testing. You call your parent and have them activate their system to make sure it works.

Companies that monitor medical alerts may have their own policies about testing. Get in touch with your monitoring company to be sure you’re doing the test at a time of day when they generally don’t have as many true emergencies.

As for changing the batteries, some button units use rechargeable batteries and need to be plugged in to keep the charge strong. Others use disposable batteries. Whichever one you have, be sure to set up a routine for keeping them strong.

With standard batteries, consider changing them each time the clocks get turned ahead or back, just as you do with your smoke alarm batteries.

Or if you have long-life batteries, make a note of when they are supposed to expire (this might be a good question for the manufacturer, too) and set yourself a reminder in an online calendar that can email or text you when the time comes.

Don’t let a little thing like a dead battery prevent you from being safe!

Starting in 2011, the baby boomers are starting to retire. For the next twenty years we’re going to have the largest group of retirees ever.

Are these retirees going to be different than the retirees who have come before them? Some people say yes. There’s an article I read recently that claims that unlike prior generations, the current generation of retirees is going to be vocal in asking for what they need and want.

There’s a stereotype about older people with medical alerts that they are sometimes unwilling to press their medical alert call button because they don’t want to bother anyone.

You hear stories about people who have even lain overnight with a broken hip but haven’t used their emergency call button because they didn’t want to call attention to themselves. Maybe they were worried about how the emergency responders would get into their house. (If you don’t have a key in a lockbox it’s possible that responders may have to damage your door in order to come in to help you.)

I do think this stereotype is going to change. And I think that’s a good thing. With a service like a medical alert, especially a medical alert that’s monitored by a professional monitoring center, you’re paying a monthly fee so that people will pick up the phone when you activate your personal emergency response system.

Maybe another generation was content not to ask for help, but the boomers are going to be very mindful of the fact that they’ve paid for a certain service, and they’re not going to be shy about using it.

So I believe providers should expect more calls. And I believe the issue of people with Medical Alerts not using them is slowly going to go away. We might have the other problem, in fact, where companies need to set up new pricing structures because people are using their services a lot more than they used to.

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Here’s what I wrote back to her:

Thanks for your question. This is something I haven’t researched yet, though I obviously need to add it to the site.

I just did a quick search for “medical alert deaf” and found one helpful result:

http://www.seniorsafety.com/medical-alert-life-line-blog/medical-alarm-systems-work-for-the-deaf-blind/

Basically, what they are saying on this page is that the regular medical alert system works fine for someone who is deaf, but there just won’t be any two-way communication. The monitoring service will have your mother’s information on file and will know she’s deaf, so they’ll interpret any activation as an emergency.

I would suggest calling different monitored medical alert companies (there are links on ElderlyMedicalAlertSystems.com) and asking them how they work with customers who are deaf. I’m sure one company will stand out as being experienced and competent with deaf people.

And please let me know what you discover.

As far as I know, there are no systems with alternate means of communication, such as TTY.

I hope that helps!

What about you? Have you looked into medical alert products for the deaf? Did you find a system that worked well for you? Please let us know in the comments.

Have you gotten your copy of my special report on 5 Medical Alert Mistakes and How to Avoid Them? Check it out.

The article is about Bernice Upin, a mentally and physically active woman who is close to 90.

She already has a medical alert system called Lifeline, but she has been looking into a mobile system named MobileHelp because the Lifeline device only works if you’re within 600 feet of the receiver. That means that if you are active like Upin and you are outside walking around or in your car somewhere when you feel dizzy or get chest pains, you can’t use Lifeline to call for help.

MobileHelp, on the other hand, works with cellular and global positioning satellite technology. So when you press the button it not only makes the call, it transmits your location.

MobileHelp works with the AT&T network. They also have access to your medical records when you call, so if paramedics respond, they can be advised of your medical conditions, medications and allergies.

So why not just switch? Payne writes, “Mary Briggs, spokeswoman for Lee Memorial Health System, said the Lifeline system offers some advantages over other devices such as the one offered by MobileHelp.

“One feature that Lifeline has that MobileHelp doesn’t is a fall detector, Briggs said. This feature, which costs extra, senses when you have fallen and automatically contacts the system operator. You don’t have to be conscious and aware enough to press the button on your own.”

That’s a pretty good feature, if it works properly.

The hospital system that provides the Lifeline unit has looked into the MobileHelp device but was concerned about whether it would be reliable and whether the batteries would last long enough.

There are always concerns like this when a new technology is introduced. In my opinion, mobile medical alert devices will be the preferred devices in the future, but it may take a few years to work out all the bugs.

Some of them are just garbage.

I’m not going to try to say that all of my articles are brilliant, but I steer clear of total junk.

Here’s why people publish junk. It’s about getting higher search engine rankings. They think that by publishing meaningless drivel that happens to mention the words “life alert” or “medical alert” they can rank higher and thereby get more business and make more money.

Generally the hope is that when someone finds your content through a search, the bad content can work to your advantage because it’s so unhelpful that you’ll click on one of those little text ads you see on those sites (and on this one).

It’s a terrible strategy. I’d rather get fewer clicks and actually help someone make the difficult decision about which medical alert to purchase.

Here’s a sentence I came across the other day on a real website selling medical alerts.

“It is advantageous in that even if you are not in the house you can be able to get the alerts for any danger.”

That’s not even written by a native speaker of English.

Please take a look around my site and enjoy the good quality information. If you find anything you think is stupid, for goodness sakes please tell me!

Oh, and here’s one of those ad blocks:

Let’s say your elderly father lives with you in your home. Most of the time there’s someone home to look after him, either you or your spouse, or maybe even your teenage children. So if something happens, like a fall or a medical emergency, there’s almost always someone there to help out or to call 911.

But not always, and that’s when you worry. Let’s say you have to pop out to the store to buy something, and you can’t wait until your wife comes home from work. You won’t be gone long, but it would still be enough time for something to happen.

This is where having a medical alert system would be great. As you head out the door you could give your dad the alarm button and then go run your errands without worrying or rushing.

Of course, there are two kinds of medical alert systems. There’s the monitored style that automatically dials a call center staffed with trained responders, and there’s the no-fee style that simply dials any number you program.

Either one works in this scenario.

If you have a monitored system, then you have the confidence of knowing there are trained operators who can answer the call if there’s an urgent situation. They can summon an ambulance or just call you on your cell phone to alert you to the problem. This kind of service costs about a dollar a day. Probably less than you spend on coffee.

If you have a no-fee system, then you just set the first number dialed to be your cell phone. If your dad needs to press his emergency call button because he needs help but can’t get to the phone, then the call comes to you and you can quickly respond or call 911 yourself if it’s a life-threatening emergency.

A medical alert system isn’t an “all or nothing” tool. Depending on your situation you don’t have to wear it 24/7. And instead of relying on it as a full time lifesaver, you can just use it when it’s most needed.

Share your thoughts below in the comments…