Hi y’all,

I have an elderly lady living next door and she doesn’t really seem to have anyone checking on her (I have never seen anyone coming to hers) apart from me and my partner every once in a while (usually she will pop by asking if we need anything and vice versa).

I’m a little bit paranoid about what would happen if she fell/collapsed in her apartment and couldn’t call for help. It doesn’t help that there is a dog living with her (I’m not gonna paint the picture, but I’m sure you heard the stories…).

I want to suggest to her to have some sort of SOS button that she could carry around the flat and, if something happens, she could press it to call for help.

I found this on aliexpress but it has it’s own proprietary android app that I don’t think would work on my GrapheneOS phone. Local, non-aliexpress options are pretty expensive and/or are subscription based.

Do you know of any alternative that wouldn’t break a bank and would have more open source friendly system in place?

EDIT: I was thinking about a cheap wireless door bell (she would have the button - door bell would be in our flat). The problem is when we are away from home.

Perhaps a door bell with simple phone push notifications (my partner has a regular android phone so she could receive those)? Any product suggestions?

  • JackbyDevEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Look, what about an Amazon Echo? I know it’s not open source at all but depending on the house size a couple Echo Dots could cover a lot. I think they can make phone calls because I’ve called my phone to find it before with mine but I’m not sure.

    A benefit is that she won’t have to have it on her person.

    Something like a Ring Doorbell could work too. Just thinking out loud. This is a weirder suggestion. They have a battery and nothing says they have to be installed on a wall. Just turn off motion completely. At that point she can press the button and talk to you.