The system has a single base station and two different help buttons.
The first button is like a regular home-based monitored medical alert. It is a lightweight pendant that works in and around your home. You can wear the button in the shower or bath, because it’s waterproof.
The base station plugs into your regular landline. When you activate the help button the base station dials the monitoring center and allows you to have a two way conversation through a powerful speakerphone.
The system can also work without a regular wired landline in your home, but you may need a special base station unit for this: the company encourages you to call them for details about ordering this unit.
When you’re out and about, you simply carry a small white “anywhere help button” that is a simple cell phone speakerphone. There’s no keypad, just a single panic button. When you press the button you are connected to the monitoring center, and the unit sends your GPS location to the monitoring center, so they know where you are even if you don’t.
For caregivers:
Caregivers can locate their loved on online using the GPS tracking feature.
You can also get an email if there’s an emergency with your loved one.
Advantages:
One advantage of this system is that it covers you both inside and outside your home for one low price. To put together the same coverage with two different systems you would be looking at approximately $30 for an in-home monitoring system and another $15 to $30 for your mobile solution.
The other advantage is that you have the same monitoring center no matter where you are. If you used a split solution you would have relationships with two different monitoring centers. This could cause confusion and make emergency response less effective.
It’s simple. All you have to do is remember to take your Anywhere button with you when you leave the house.
Reviews:
An ElderlyMedicalAlertSystems.com visitor named Adria purchased this system and wrote to me,
“We have selected/leased the mobile PERS from Mobile Help. Excellent customer service and tech support. AT&T is the provider so the reception/connection is only as good as the signal. So far so good. Good value for fairly short money.”
What do you think? Make a comment and let me know your experience or any questions you have about this unit.
Learn more at the MobileHelpNow website.
I see the alert system is $24.95, but how much is the system I would need if I wanted help on vacation or away from the house, like at church.
As far as I can tell, the fee is $34.95 per month for both your in-home and out-and-about montoring.
This system sounds promising. But for the in-home system is it just a base station /speakerphone, or is there a pendant that goes with it? The speakerphone system wouldn’t work for us in-home for the reasons you outline in your review of the speakerphone type systems. Thanks.
Dan: You’re right, the in-home system is just a base-station speakerphone. I guess one alternative is to carry the cellular/GPS unit inside the house, but that probably has issues with battery life. The cellular unit is not meant to run for months without a new battery (that’s why it charges every night on the base station).
Year 2 and all is still good. Pendant / watch options will signal the desktop and mobile device. Battery life on the mobile device is @ 12 hours. Optional car charger is available. Very good customer service / tech support. We continue to be fans.
Thanks for the update, Adria!
I am returning the MobilHelp (MobileHelpNow) unit I purchased.
Reason 1 – Response times for answering an alert during my testing was far longer than I think they should. They averaged about a minute when I was testing. The high was one test which took a minute 45 seconds before anyone responded to the alert. That is a long time when you are older and needing help. I suspect they outsource the response team that calls you when you press the button.
Reason 2 – I found the voice response on both the home unit and the mobile unit were not clear. It was often difficult for me to understand what they were saying and I don’t need a hearing aide.
Reason 3 – I found the range that was advertised for the mobile unit was much less than advertised. It would not respond from about 80 feet when sitting in an outside window.
On returning the unit I found that they really do not give you 30 days to test the unit. The 30 day test period starts when they ship/invoice the unit to you and ends when they get the unit back. Thus the time you actually have the unit for testing is only about 3 weeks. This seems so misleading to me that I would now question anything this company would tell me.
Lance, thanks so much for sharing your experience. In my testing of other units it’s not unusual to have a delay of 45 seconds to a minute until the call goes through (which seems like FOREVER). This seems extra long, though. Your concerns about the audio quality and range are important.
Lance I wished I had read your post before getting this unit. I agree the response time is way too long. I also tried to use the mobile unit 3 blocks from my house and was just getting garble on the unit. When I got home I found they called my home telephone number to see if they could help me. This does nothing for me when I am in distress away from home to call my home to see if I need help.
Thanks for your comment, Lindsey. I guess I’m glad they did try to reach you at your home, but how distressing that you weren’t able to communicate with them. Do you have any issues with cell reception near your home usually? Is there any explanation they give for why the response time is so long?
We ordered a MobileHelp system for my MIL. Although she lives with my SIL there are many opportunities when help may be needed when no one knows. She had a system given for free with her insurance but the response time took over 3 minutes and we could not understand a thing they were saying so we decided to get this system instead. It truly has saved her life many times. Once when she got up during the night and fell. Because she had her pendant on she was able to press the button and the alarm woke up others in the house. She ended up needing to go to the hospital and help was there quickly, even though they live in a pretty rural area. The fact that we received notifications each time an alarm was initiated helped us to know what was happening without my SIL having to call us. They system has worked well for us over 3 years, and the fact that all her medical problems are listed and given to the first responders has helped save time during emergencies.