Pendant Alarms for the Elderly in Ireland: How They Work, Costs and Limits

The pendant alarm is the personal alarm most Irish families picture first: a small button on a cord around the neck, and a base unit on the hall table. For many older people it is exactly the right thing. For others it ends up in a drawer.

Here is a plain guide to pendant alarms for the elderly in Ireland: how they work, how to get one free, what private pendants offer, and the honest limits worth knowing before you choose.

How a pendant alarm works

A pendant alarm has two parts.

• The pendant. A small, light button worn around the neck, or sometimes on the wrist.
• The base unit. A box plugged in at home, with a loud speaker and microphone, that connects to the monitoring service.

When your loved one presses the pendant, the base unit calls out. Usually that is a 24 hour monitoring centre, where someone speaks to your loved one through the base unit and contacts the family, a neighbour or the emergency services. Some pendants call family numbers instead.

The pendant talks to the base unit by radio, so it works within range of the base unit. In most homes that covers the house and often the garden.

The free pendant: the Seniors Alert Scheme

If your loved one is 65 or over, check the Seniors Alert Scheme before you pay for anything. It is Ireland's publicly funded personal alarm scheme, arranged through local community, voluntary and not-for-profit groups registered with Pobal.

• Who qualifies: people aged 65 and over, of limited means, who live alone, live with someone who also qualifies, are alone for significant parts of the day, or care for someone in their household.
• What you get: a monitored pendant alarm and base unit.
• What it costs: the equipment is free and the first year of monitoring is free. After that there is an annual monitoring fee, which varies by provider.
• How to apply: through the registered group in your area, not through the government or Pobal directly.

Our full guide to the Seniors Alert Scheme in Ireland walks through eligibility and the application step by step, and HSE personal alarms for the elderly explains what the HSE does and does not provide.

Private pendant alarms

If your loved one does not qualify for the scheme, or you want something set up quickly, several Irish companies sell monitored pendant alarms directly. You usually pay for the equipment and a monthly or annual monitoring fee.

Feature for feature, most are similar to the scheme pendant: a button, a base unit and a monitoring centre. Some add extras for a higher fee, such as automatic fall detection or a mobile version with GPS. What you are really buying is the monitoring service, so compare:

• Who answers, and how quickly, and what they do next.
• The monthly or annual fee, and what it includes.
• The contract: minimum term, cancellation, and what happens to the equipment.
• The extras, and whether you actually need them.

Fall detection pendants

A standard pendant relies on the button being pressed. That is its biggest gap, because the moment families worry about most is a fall where their loved one cannot press anything.

A fall detection pendant adds motion sensors that look for the pattern of a hard fall and raise the alert on their own, usually after a short countdown the wearer can cancel. It is a real improvement, and it is not perfect. A slow slide from a chair can be missed, and a dropped pendant can set it off. Our plain explainer on how fall detection works goes into what it can honestly promise, and fall alarms for the elderly in Ireland covers the wider choice.

The honest limits of a pendant alarm

A pendant alarm is a good, simple tool. Before you choose one, it is worth knowing where it falls short.

• It has to be worn. Pendants are often taken off at night, for a wash, or because they feel like a badge that says "frail", and then not put back on. We wrote about how to tell if a loved one is really wearing their alarm.
• It covers the home, not the day. Out of range of the base unit, it cannot call for help, so it does not follow your loved one to the shops, to Mass or on a walk.
• A standard pendant needs a button press. If your loved one is hurt or confused, it may not be pressed.
• It usually calls a centre first. The family is on the contact list, but may not be the first to know.

Pendant, wristband or watch?

• Mostly at home and happy to press a button: a pendant, ideally the free scheme pendant.
• Worried about a fall where they could not press it: a pendant or watch with automatic fall detection.
• Prefers something on the wrist: see wrist alarms for the elderly in Ireland.
• Still out and about, or you want to see where they are: a 4G fall detection watch with GPS.

For a direct comparison, read a fall detection watch vs a pendant alarm.

Where Norse fits

We make the watch: a dedicated 4G fall detection watch with its own SIM, an SOS button, automatic fall detection and GPS, with alerts sent straight to the family through a simple app. It works at home and out and about wherever there is mobile signal, and it looks like a watch rather than an alarm. It is built for families in Ireland and is launching soon. You can see it on the watch page.

Many families find the two work well together: the free scheme pendant at home, and a watch for everywhere else. Whatever you choose, any alarm depends on being worn and charged, and on signal or a working base unit. It is reassurance, not a guarantee.