Our local senior center has a service called telephone reassurance. Basically a volunteer calls you each day to make sure you're ok and small talks with you. For someone living alone that seems like a great feature but there's a waitlist for this.... I guess I just want someone to make sure I'm ok or else contact my son. Is there any alternative to this? My grandson is thinking about just developing something for me (he's a software engineer). But I think that may be an overkill. They call me when they can but I don't want to burden them with every day calls even though I do look forward to them.
Welcome to the forum @Joshua Chen. Nope, I don't think anyone offers that service here, but it would be a good thing for those who live alone.
The state of Maryland has a senior call check program, but odds are you don't live there. What you can do though is call a family member daily and just leave a message on their machine and say you're OK. That wouldn't be a burden on them but would give them peace of mind too. And welcome from PA.
Welcome to the forum @Joshua Chen . With all the goofball telephone calls and scams, I would be leery of having a stranger calling every day. A friend, relative or neighbor might be a better choice, or a combination of all three. Don't think of it as a burden, if it helps you. Also, maybe you could reach out occasionally, to let them know you are still alive.
My Apple Watch will call my emergency contacts if I fall, or use the emergency alert button on the watch, and it also notifies 911 to send help. Probably, some of the other medical alert devices would have at least some of those functions to notify your family if you needed help. Instead of a phone call, you can send a text to your son each day at a certain time, and then he will know to check on you if he does not get the text. This should work about as well as someone calling you would work, since that would only be once a day also, and as long as you sent the text, they do not have to do anything except get the text. Just one with a smiley face or a heart is all you need to send, as long as everything is fine with you. Welcome to the forum, @Joshua Chen !
Welcome to the forum, Joshua. To wax philosophical, this stuff is the flip side to us having our independence as late in life as we do. It's a pretty recent thing to not have multiple generations under the same roof. And now something as simple as a daily call from family is impinging on their freedom & independence. A web search on "Wellness Check Services" got some results, including a place that offers a variety of plans: One Call Per Day (Mon-Fri) $29.95 per month One Call Per Day (Mon-Fri + Weekends) $49.95 per month Two Calls Per Day (Mon-Fri) $54.95 per month Two Calls Per Day (Mon-Fri + Weekends) $89.95 per month Three Calls Per Day (Mon-Fri) $79.95 per month Three Calls Per Day (Mon-Fri + Weekends) $129.95 per month They also offer a Monitored Check-In Service for you to send a text, email or phone call once a day (7 days a week) to let them know you are OK. For $15/month they review the log at the end of the day, and if they have not heard from you they try making contact. If you do not respond, they follow whatever instructions you have provided. Here's the website. I can't specifically recommend this place (or any other place), but it will give you an idea of some options you may have.
no way. I rather call my friends myself and do. My good friend Julia Curtis has severe medical issues so we text almost daily. Altho I am married she does a check on me also and much appreciated.
My health insurance was calling me every month to talk about blah, blah, how ya doin', are ya gettin outdoors, taking your meds, etc. After a bit of this they said since I didn't have any troubles and wasn't falling apart like so many others I could just opt out of this "service." And so I did.
Yes, my grandson always tells me to call whenever I want. I just feel like he has a busy life already and I don't have that much to talk about. But it just feels good to hear his voice.
Was it part of the plan that they charged for? Or was it a mandatory process that you had to go through before they determined you're less risk? Thank you for the insight. I might need to check with my insurance to see if they have this.
My younger almost expat younger brother calls me from Germany now and then but other than that, the only time people call me is when they want something.
Each health insurance company has different guidelines and often several different plans for people. We switched over to Devoted Health this year, and they are the very best health insurance that we have ever had. They are actually very pro-active about each person’s health, and they call me or text message me every few months to see how my health is doing. As @Jacob Petersheim mentioned, you can opt in or out of these programs, depending on whether you want them or not. One thing I really like with Devoted, any time I have questions or any kind of issues, a text message to them gets a really fast response. They even have their own online doctors if you have medical questions and can’t get in to see your own doctor.