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?

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[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 year ago (8 children)

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...).

FWIW I think you're thinking of cats. A loyal dog will often starve to death before harming their master.

All that being said, I think this is one of those hills where it's not worth dying on for FOSS. There are services out there that are designed to do this and have round-the-clock monitoring. Do you really want to trust that your jury-rig solution is fool proof enough to save her? As you said, if you are out of the house, it does no good. Just something like lifealert is probably better here.

[–] plzExplainNdetail 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Dogs can and do eat people. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/would-your-dog-eat-you-if-you-died-get-the-facts

I do agree that OP should look into already existing services that are actively monitored.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Well that devolved fast, hah. But i thought it too. You’re dead, they’re starving 🍽 . But depending on overall mobility, rom, vision, a fog/cat can trap you up. I was amazed the lady that broke her hip up the street didn’t get pneumonia, but…she got up and did her pt 2-3 times a day instead of laying up or unable to get up and getting pneumonia. I get it. I’m feeling my age and old/new injuries and aches and I feel like i don’t want to walk, too hut/cold/rainy/mosquitoes but I feel it if i miss a few days.

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