How to Set Up a Personal Alarm for an Older Loved One in Ireland

In short: setting up a personal alarm at home comes down to five things. The right connection for the house, a contact list of people who will answer and can get in, a base unit in a central spot, the Eircode written down, and a test press on the first day and every month after. Under the free Seniors Alert Scheme, the local group and its provider do the installation. Your part is the contacts, the key and the testing.

Most families think the hard part is choosing the alarm. In practice, the details of setting it up decide whether it works on the day it is needed. Here is the checklist, step by step, for a home in Ireland.

Before the installation: how the alarm will connect

The base unit in the house needs a way to reach the monitoring centre. There are three kinds.

• A landline unit, which plugs into the phone socket.
• A broadband unit, which plugs into the router.
• A unit with its own mobile SIM, for a home with no landline and no broadband. It plugs into an ordinary socket, and there is a yearly SIM charge on top of the monitoring fee.

One thing to check now. Most home phone services in Ireland now run over the internet rather than the old copper line, and ComReg, the communications regulator, says an alarm that used a landline might need to be replaced or reconfigured after that change. If the house has moved to a fibre phone, or is about to, tell the alarm provider. Our guide to personal alarms in a power cut or storm explains what that change means when the power goes, and alarms for homes without a landline covers the SIM option.

If your loved one qualifies for the Seniors Alert Scheme, you apply through a local community group registered with Pobal, not the HSE. Once the application is approved, the group arranges the installation with its provider. TASK Community Care, one of the providers, aims to install within 10 days of the order. The installer tests the alarm on the day and your loved one signs for the equipment, which stays the property of the local group.

Step 1: Choose the contacts

When the button is pressed, an operator speaks to your loved one through the base unit, then rings the people on the contact list, and calls the emergency services if they are needed or if nobody can be reached. So the contact list matters more than any feature.

• Pick people who will answer, at any hour, and who can get to the house or know who can.
• Have more than one. Providers usually ask for a few. Tunstall Emergency Response, for example, asks for at least three.
• Agree an order, and tell each person they are on the list and what a call from the centre means.
• Keep it up to date. A changed number or a contact who has moved away is the most common gap.

The details often go on a form that the installer collects on the day, so have the names and numbers ready.

Step 2: Make sure help can get in

If your loved one has fallen and cannot reach the door, someone has to be able to open it. Make sure at least one contact has a key and lives close enough to use it quickly. Some families also fit a key safe beside the door; if you do, give the code only to the people on the contact list.

Step 3: Put the base unit in the right place

• Somewhere central, such as the hall, with a power socket and the connection it needs close by.
• Within range of the rooms they use. How far the pendant reaches varies a lot by model and by the walls in between. Irish providers quote figures from about 50 metres up to 300 metres in open space, so do not assume.
• Plugged in for good. Make sure nobody switches it off at the wall to free up a socket.

Step 4: Write down the Eircode and the numbers

The HSE says that clear directions to the house and its Eircode can help an ambulance crew find it faster. Write the Eircode beside the phone, with short directions if the house is hard to find, and give it to the alarm provider too.

Beside it, keep a written list: family, neighbours, the GP and the GP out-of-hours number. Gardaí also advise making sure the house number can be seen clearly from the road.

Step 5: The first test, and every month after

On the day it is installed, press the button with the installer there and make sure your loved one hears the operator clearly through the base unit.

After that, test it once a month, which is the usual advice from Irish providers. Press the button, tell the operator it is a test, and try it from the furthest rooms, the garden and the driveway, so you both know where it reaches. A fixed day helps, such as the first Sunday of the month, done together.

What happens if it goes off by mistake

Accidental presses happen, and they are nothing to be embarrassed about. The operator answers, checks in, and your loved one can simply say it was a mistake. Tunstall Emergency Response, for one, says the emergency services are not called for an accidental press: the operator tries to speak to the person first.

No Irish provider we checked lists a charge for an accidental press, but ask yours before installation so nobody hesitates to press it when it matters. Our guide to what a monitored alarm is like day to day covers who answers and what monitoring costs.

The things that catch families out

• Changing phone or broadband company. Tell the alarm provider before you switch. A change can need a call-out to the house, and under the scheme that charge is not covered.
• A lost pendant. Under the Seniors Alert Scheme, a lost pendant is replaced free through the local group.
• A power cut. Base units have a backup battery, but only for a time, and an alarm that runs through the router needs the router to stay on as well.
• Wearing it. An alarm on the bedside locker cannot be pressed from the kitchen floor. Here is how to tell if the pendant is really being worn.

If they spend time out of the house

A home alarm covers the house and usually the garden, within range of the base unit. It does nothing for the walk to the shops, the trip to Mass or the bus into town. For that, the usual answer is a watch with its own SIM, which works wherever there is mobile signal. Our guide to alarm watches for older people explains what to look for.

Where Norse fits

Setting up Norse is a different job, because there is no base unit and no installer. The watch comes with its own SIM, one person in the family sets up the app, invites the others and decides who sees your loved one's location, and the family numbers the SOS button rings in turn are set in the app. Your loved one knows it is there and agrees to it. Day to day, the app tells you calmly when they go out and when they are home again.

The honest version: it depends on mobile signal and on the watch being worn and charged, and it is reassurance, not a guarantee. If your loved one qualifies for the Seniors Alert Scheme, claim the pendant for the house as well. Orders open in November, and you can see how the watch works on the watch page.