Mrs T's story

The Situation
Mrs T, 92, became a Progress Lifeline customer after her son urged her to get the service for "peace of mind" for the family and her own safety, after she began experiencing falls at home.

All three of Mrs T’s sons live 250 miles away in Bath, while she lives in Lancashire on her own, after her husband passed away a number of years ago.

The Progress Lifeline solution
Mrs T has the Progress Lifeline personal alarm pendant, base unit and 24 hour a day/365 days a year remote home monitoring. As her family live so far away, Mrs T didn’t want to inconvenience friends and neighbours to check on her should she need to call for help with her personal pendant alarm, so she also pays for the Progress Lifeline Emergency Home Response service.

Having the extra support of the Emergency Home Response service means that if she is taken ill, has an accident, and is either unable to respond to the operator after pressing her personal pendant alarm, or has fallen, is uninjured but isn’t able to get back up without assistance, she knows that a responder will be with her within one hour.

Our Emergency Responders will assess the situation:

• Call the emergency services
• Provide reassurance and basic first aid
• Deal with any health and safety risks which may occur
• Use assistive lifting techniques and equipment to lift customers who have fallen, are uninjured, and need assistance to get back up

Customer feedback

“When I get tired, I do tend to fall more often. I fell on my drive last year but I wasn’t hurt, I just simply didn’t have the strength to get back up anymore. This is a very good service, I wear my button all the time. I like to think that I’m fearless even at 92, but actually I’m very happy that I have this service”.

Outcomes

• Reduce demand on the NHS as Mrs T doesn’t need to call the North West Ambulance Service to help her up if she falls and is uninjured
• The potential for further injury should Mrs T fall and try to move around to find the phone to call for help, is now reduced, as she wears the personal pendant alarm at all times, and knows that our responders will be with her within one hour
• Living so far away, Mrs T’s family have been worried about their elderly Mum living alone, but they now have increased peace of mind that she is able to easily press her personal pendant alarm for help, and that if necessary, they will be contacted by our monitoring centre
• Mrs T’s health has improved as she feels less anxious now knowing that if she needs help, she can contact Progress Lifeline at the press of a button

Overview of contract - Commissioned by the Integrated Care System, Lancashire County Council, the Clinical Commissioning Groups in Partnership with North West Ambulance Service.

Progress Lifeline in partnership with North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), the Health & Social Care Commissioners of Lancashire County Council and the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups are working together to create an improved service for patients who fall but are uninjured throughout the whole of Lancashire.

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) triage the calls and if a fall patient is uninjured and does not need medical attention they request the assistance of Progress Lifeline's assistive lifting service. This means reducing the need for an emergency ambulance response freeing up valuable ambulance resources to attend to life threatening calls.

Receiving referrals from NWAS or service users who our connected to our alarm response centre, the average time for our responders to arrive on site is just 27 minutes*.

*Since going live on the 1st October 2019

Are you worried about yourself or a loved one falling? Find out how Progress Lifeline can provide peace of mind and assistance if you are worried about, or at risk of, falling here.