Personal/fall alarms

[Katherine Bird]

Happy New Year all,

Our Trustees are looking at the provision of personal/fall alarms. We have historically supplied them to all residents, and then not replaced them when people don’t use them, and now our equipment is old, and there is no proper system as to who has what.

They are looking to remove the provision and ask that if residents need them that they supply the equipment themselves.

My questions are:
– do you supply personal/fall alarms?
– if not do you ask that they supply them personally?
– either way how do you decide when/if they are required?
– at what point do you insist that they get them/you provide them?

Many thanks

Katherine
The Andover Charities

[lana_sh]

Hello Katherine,

If your accommodation consists of flats in a building with more than one floor, you are legally required to install fire alarm systems in both the individual residences and communal areas.

In our case, we have single-story bungalows with direct outdoor access and no shared spaces. Initially, we asked residents to monitor and replace the batteries in their smoke alarms, but we encountered the same issues you’re facing. Now, we supply the smoke alarms ourselves and include regular checks as part of our ongoing fire risk assessments.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Lana

[clerk@salisburyalmshouses.co.uk]

In Salisbury we provide Amie pendants to all Residents who we feel are in need of them (mostly those Residents who have started falling regularly). If they lose or break them, they have to pay for a new one.

Susan Coen
Salisbury City Almshouse & Welfare Charities

[Katherine Bird]

Hi Lana,

Thank you for this – I was talking about safety alarms, rather than fire alarms.

[markcs@btinternet.com]

Hi Katherine,

We have decided not to provide these for our residents or to make them compulsory. We regard these as a personal responsibility and so if they feel that they would like one it is their responsibility to purchase one and pay the associated charges.

I think it is important to have context though as we only provide four units and cannot cater for any significant disability or vulnerably due to the age and listed status of our building. If residents get to the stage of not being able to look after themselves or become vulnerable, we are no longer able to offer them continued residency.

As a very small charity we are also very mindful of ongoing costs and try to minimise these where at all possible.

Many regards

Mark

[a.prior@btinternet.com]

Where frailty requires them we rent and pay for the alarms from Somerset Council At present we provide them to 2 of our 10 residents.
Tony Prior
Harveys and Jubilee Homes

[Avril Steele]

Hello Katherine
We ask all residents to have a careline in place.
They pay for their landline and we pay for the careline units and support.
Wearing the pendant is up to the individual and although we encourage the residents to wear their pendant, not all of them do.
However, in an emergency, some have been able to press either the pendant or the button on the uint.
Our experience has been that no one ever thinks they are going to need it until a crisis proves otherwise..
I think there are many benefits in having it in place from the beginning of someone’s time in the almshouse.
Frailty is not the only reason someone may need to call for help.
Sometimes the most unlikely person suddenly falls ill and events such as heart attacks can come out of nowhere.
If it were left as an optional extra, I believe some would not avail themselves of the service – either because of the cost or because they think they will never need it.
In our setting of 20-25 residents, the service has proved itself on many occasions.
I should add that landlines will soon not be required for careline services to operate as more digital units are rolled out.
I hope this helps.
Avril
Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty

[clerk@westerhamalmshousecharity.org]

Hi Katherine,

we have an antiquated pull cord system which is being made redundant by digital switchover. The Almshouses are now asking all Residents who do not have a personal alarm system (some already do) to find one that suits them/NOK, since Residents live in a listed building which is not supervised in any way. That way Residents can find a system that works best for them.

Kelly

[John Christmas]

We have an old careline system that is at the end of its life. Trustees decided some time ago that we would need to replace because of the digital switchover. We have now decided to remove the old system and residents will make their own arrangements for an alarm if they need it. Residents need guidance but there are now many more sophisticated systems available that can be adapted to individual needs and are much better than the fixed careline. As the cost of maintenance and monitoring of the current system is recovered from residents the extra cost of individual alarms to those residents that need one should not be great

[Angharad Saunders]

We are currently reviewing our call care system and have posed very similar questions to Katharine. We still operate an analogue, pendant system . We are encountering problems with the planned switchover as mobile reception is very patchy in some of our locations and many of our residents do not have the internet, only landline connections. Tunstall and BT have offered some solutions, but these are only temporary; hence, why we are looking at other ways of doing this. Currently, we pay for the call care / alarm system and residents pay for a landline.

[Author]

Posts