Personal Emergency Response Paper

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Perception a Personal Emergency Response System among Community-Dwelling Older Adults With numerous breakthroughs in technology, assistive devices have facilitated older people’s efforts to live independently for a longer period of time. The trend of living alone amongst older people has increased dramatically from 1935 to 2011 (US Census Bureau, 2010). The advancement in age contributes to various accidents, such as a fall, heart attack or stroke and the severity of such incidents increases if they are not attended quickly (Botia, Villa & Palma, 2012). Some of the devices that keep older adult secure during emergencies, based on Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), have reduced mortality rates significantly (Berstein, 2000). PERS is…show more content…
Andrew Dibner designed the first system for a PERS in 1972 (Hessels, Prell, & Mann, 2011). PERS is a simple electronic device containing a small portable radio transmitter in a pendant, bracelet or neck-collar. It contains a button which alerts the signal to the emergency response center (ERC) for help when pressed (Dibner, 1992; Porter, 2005). The ERCs are set up at the nearest police station or community service center, which responds back to the older adult and confirms the required help or need for hospitalization (Porter, 2005). The ERC dispatches the help and contacts the relatives/friends/neighbors after confirming the incident or refers to the hospital. Globally, there are 308,000 PERS users, and two-third of them resides in the USA (Molvig, 2013). The users reported having better sleep patterns and increased confidence in living alone, promoting ‘aging in place’ and maintaining independence as long as possible (Mann, Ottenbacber, Fraas, Tomita & Granger, 1999; Botia, Villa & Palma, 2012). Most of the users of the PERS want to stay home and have some disabling condition or a chronic disease such as cardiovascular problems or Rheumatoid Arthritis (Dibner, 1990). The family members also experienced psychological comfort when their elders wear a PERS (Fallis.et. al,…show more content…
PERS usage reduced the costs of early institutionalization, contributing to almost $3 billion savings a year (Hessels, Le Prell & Mann, 2011). The use of PERS significantly contributed to decreased hospital admission and length of stay (Koch, 1980; Caln, 1987; Dibner, 1992; Roush & Teasdale, 1995; Hessels, Le Prell & Mann, 2011). Despite these advantages, Levine and Tideiksaar (1995) discovered that less than 50% of PERS users showed compliance to this system; some felt challenged with either having no idea how to activate or how to wear a PERS (Mann, Belchior, Tomita & Kemp,

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