Senior Living Guide5/9

Automatic fall detection — and its real limits

Automatic fall detection uses motion sensors to try to recognize a fall and alert the monitoring center even if the person can't press the button — useful for a fall that causes a head injury or loss of consciousness.

It is not foolproof. Fall detection can miss slow slides to the floor or falls into soft furniture, and it can also trigger false alarms from sitting down quickly. Treat it as a helpful backup, not a guarantee, and confirm with any provider what their fall detection accuracy claims are actually based on.

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