A medical alarm is a personal security device designed specifically for the individual. It is also commonly referred to as a personal alarm.

The panic button (or unit transmitter) is a small and portable device that can be worn as a neck pendant, a wristband, or belt clip. In the event of an emergency, all that is required is for the person to press the panic button to call for help.

DIY packages make owning and installing your own medical alarm very affordable and simple.

By doing-it-yourself, you can save the money a technician would normally charge for the installation. Choosing a stand-alone unit as opposed to the central monitored unit also saves you the monthly monitoring fees.

A Basic DIY package
DIY medical alarm packages are very easy to setup. They’re plug-and-play.

Setting up the unit is usually as simple as plugging in a phone or an answering machine. A basic DIY medical alarm package will include the…

Home base unit (or Main Unit).
Panic button or unit transmitter.
Plug-in power supply & phone cord.
Rechargeable backup battery.

Some companies offer additional accessories that you can add to the main package if you require greater security. Accessories like smoke and gas detectors, floodwater and motion sensors.

You can include a belt clip fall detector that dispatches an emergency signal the moment the person falls to the ground. Other possible accessories include things like bed and chair occupancy sensors.

How they protect you
The concept is very straightforward. All unit transmitters, detectors and sensors work in a similar way. They transmit an emergency signal back to the home base unit the moment they are triggered by some sort of action.

Panic Button – If a person physically presses the panic button, this triggers that unit transmitter sends an emergency signal back to the main unit.

Fall Detector – If the person falls to the ground, the fall detector they are wearing is displaced more than 60 degrees from the vertical position. This displacement triggers the fall detector and sends an emergency signal back to the main unit.

Occupancy Sensors – Depending on their setup, bed and chair occupancy sensors detect the absence of the person. As when an elderly person falls out of bed or out of their chair. This triggers the sensor to send an emergency signal back to the home base unit. Occupancy sensors can also be configured to detect if a person has been sitting or sleeping for too long.

How they work
A personal alarm establishes communication directly through the main unit that acts as both a loudspeaker and a microphone. If the injured person is in another room or far from the main unit, all they have to do is speak out loudly in order to be heard.

Stand-Alone – Stand-alone systems dial out a set of emergency telephone numbers that have been preselected by the system owner. Friends, family, or even emergency services can speak directly to the person who needs assistance.

Centrally Monitored – Systems that are monitored by a central calling station establish a two-way voice communication over the main unit. This allows the operator to speak directly to the person in trouble, assess the situation, and dispatch the proper help.

Newer systems now include the microphone and speaker directly on the unit transmitter. The person can speak directly into their neck pendant, wristband, or the belt clip.

GPS Tracking – Today, GPS tracking allows you to travel practically anywhere and know that your personal alarm is always monitored and that you’re always protected. In the past the unit transmitter would not work if you were too far from the home base unit. You would have to stay indoors and close to home

The DIY advantages
The advantage of a do-it-yourself system is that it simply costs you less.

Company installed medical alarms can cost you anywhere from $ 400 for the whole unit to $ 0 for the whole unit. A DIY medical alarm package will cost you a one-time flat fee of around $ 200.

Get a medical alarm that is stand-alone instead of centrally monitored.

This will eliminate the monthly monitoring fees that can be anywhere from $ 20 to $ 30 a month. The companies make their money off the monitoring fees, not the equipment. In most cases, they give you the equipment for free.

After a few months of paying for monitoring fees, you’ve already covered the cost of your personal alarm. Every payment after that (for years to come) is money out of your pocket and into the monitoring company’s pocket.