As a monitored personal alarm service with professional emergency response operators, MePACS prides itself on getting our clients the right help quickly, with the necessary level of urgency.
Emergency contacts play a vital role in enabling us to do this, and so does our ability to work with the Triple Zero response centre to get medical help to our clients fast.
As the MePACS response operators triage the call, we can understand the client’s situation and any medical condition. We share this information with emergency services who can then prioritise the call appropriately to the client.
This is not the case with autodialler alarms as the Triple Zero response centre only receives a text base message, without sharing any medical information or details on the situation. This doesn’t confirm whether the signal for help is a true emergency or an accidental press – so by having a monitored personal alarm service that is responded to by trained professionals, clients are much safer.
MePACS will also keep in contact with the client to help reassure them until help physically arrives; providing the ultimate peace of mind.
Nominated Contacts
Not all emergency situations require an ambulance – sometimes our clients just need a close family member or friend to help.
Nominated contacts play an important role in our service and they must be available to answer calls from MePACS 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We cannot accept phone numbers that direct to automated messages, or call queues, as delays in answering calls can significantly impact the quality of response we provide to our clients.
MePACS requires our clients to have at least one contact living within 30 minutes (plus a key lock), or two contacts living within 30 minutes (and no key lock) in order to utilise our service. This policy enables us to ensure we are sending appropriate help to our clients and reducing unnecessary call outs.
Some examples of when a nominated contact may be called include (but not limited to):
- Assist a client who has fallen and needs help getting up
- Assist a client who is generally feeling unwell
- Assist a client who is feeling anxious
- Check-in on a client who has activated their home pendant but is not responding to the MePACS operators
Clients can have up to 4 nominated contacts such as sons, daughters, other family members, friends or even neighbours.
What if a client is non-responsive (no voice-to-voice contact)?
If a client is not responding to the call from MePACS, we will call an emergency contact and ask them to check on the client. This is why it is important for contacts to live within 30 minutes of the client so they can attend their home quickly and raise an alert to notify us if it was an accidental activation or a true emergency.
When a client activates their alarm, we will always try to speak to them first and ask what kind of help they need.
If we can’t speak or hear the client, we will always try to call a contact to go and check on the client.
If we cannot get hold of any contacts, we will always call an ambulance to attend.
We have a high duty of care to ensure our clients continue to live at home with the peace of mind that if they do need help, MePACS are only the touch of one button away.