Mom keeps taking off her personal fall alert necklace, any alternatives?

You say you are only leaving her for under an hour while you run errands - I get that you want to enclose her in bubble wrap but I'm not sure that any devise is going to buy anything more than a (false?) feeling of security and perhaps a lessening of unjustified guilty feelings. Imagine she falls now while you are at the store and you don't find her until you return home in 20 minutes. Now imagine you are at the store and you get an alert or you check the security app on your phone and you see her on the floor, so you drop everything and rush home in a panic to assess the damage. How much have you gained?

Why don't you just get some inexpensive security cameras, that you can access from your smart phone, when you are away? I had a camera on the mantel in my living room where my husband was in the hospital bed,(he was bedridden), and I too was his 24/7 caregiver, so when I did have to go out, I could just check on him through my phone. Because your mom is mobile, you would just need to place the cameras throughout your house. The camera gave me great peace of mind. I have the Blink Security cameras, and mine are the older ones that you only can hear on them , where now the ones they have have where you can hear what's going on, and also talk to the person as well. I think I only paid like $200, for 3 cameras, and the module. Worth every penny.

I am thinking the best solution would be a regular aide at a regular weekly or bi-weekly time that sits while you shop - for safety & peace of mind.

I work with the elderly. When they have had a fall I ask do you have a falls alarm? So many say yes. Were you wearing it? Quite often yes. Did you press the button. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Answers include they forget they had it, forgot how it worked. Mostly shuffled to a phone to call a relative instead. One lay in a garden all night instead of pressing the button.

My own relative has lain on the floor all night without pressing the button. Oh well, she thought, can't fall any further, just sleep here tonight.

JennaRose, I don't mean to scare you. Just there are situations beyond your control. Providing the alarm IS in your control. Whether Mother pushes the button is not. Falls happen due to a zillion reasons: loss of balance but also due to TIA, stroke, heart attack, blood pressure problems etc. Not everyone who falls call think straight. I gather the necklace is an automated alarm? Better, but not the whole solution.

If she is on the floor she cannot fall further. Yes stroke, head injury, heart attack need immediate treatment but what are your Mother's plans? Does she want CPR? I am sorry to be confronting - but many don't want that.

Maybe try a sitter.

Not good for you to be rushing round the shops in a panic attack ☹️. (((hugs)))

Does the company offer other devices like a bracelet? Could the bracelet be used as an ankle monitor?
Can the necklace be placed in a pocket each morning? She would not notice it so probably she would leave it alone.
You might also want to consider putting security cameras in the house that you can monitor on your phone.

I like Grandma1954's pocket idea, or perhaps pinning it to her waistband if there are no pockets. Somewhere out of sight would hopefully be out of mind as well so she wouldn't remove it.

My Mom and I just finished playing cards and I asked her why she takes it off. She said it bothers her when she goes to sleep and lays on her side. I think if I can make it shorter it wouldn't bother her.

Jenna Rose: you can add sensors on the doors, windows, as well as other locations. I had a sensor on the lid of the bathroom waste container that my mom would use every time she used a personal non flushable wipe. I would get an alert and know she would need extra care. The non obtrusive device gave me the ability to “magically appear” whenever she needed me.

It is a difficult situation when a person with dementia won't wear a medical alert pendant. There is a company that makes soles for a person's shoes that has a GPS tracking device in them. Most individuals with dementia do wear their shoes, so this is a good resolution for many. However, this system does not have a fall detection component. I really don't know a good solution for that part of the problem.

I want to let you know that if your mom has a fall pendant, it is crucial to know that she must wear the pendant outside of her clothes. These pendants need to be able to register the velocity and the impact of a fall. When someone is wearing the pendants on the inside of a shirt, the fall may not register.

She may be beyond the point where she would be able to use it, remember to use it, or understand its importance.

I recommend installing cameras around the house that can be monitored via a phone app. For example, people use them for their pets when they need to leave the house. (We have the Kasa app on our phones for that purpose.)

The only alert device that seems to be somewhat reliable is the ankle bracelet that cannot be removed easily. They use them in nursing homes.

Hi Jenna,
My mom, 96, who lives with us did the same thing every night before going to bed. She is still able to put herself to bed and get dressed in the morning. My mom also pushed the button a few times unnecessarily. The one she wears has an automatic fall response. What I had to do, which works for us is I placed tape over the call button. Also, so she does not remove the lanyard, I had to shorten it. Unconventional, but it's working for us. Good luck