DELACOMBE'S Pat Harvey swears by her Safety Link pendant after she was forced to use it twice in the past three months.
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Both times Mrs Harvey, 75, collapsed due to food poisoning but was able to activate her pendant first.
Each time, paramedics arrived quickly and she was treated with morphine before being taken to hospital.
"Being a diabetic it could have been really bad, but the system was just marvellous," Mrs Harvey said.
"The lady in the (retirement village) unit next to me has a lot of medical problems and she swears by it."
Started 32 years ago by some Queen Elizabeth Centre nurses concerned about patient safety in their own homes, Safety Link is now a nationwide service with 20,000 clients, ranging from a two-year-old with severe lung problems to a 103-year-old.
The program even boasts a client on Lord Howe Island.
Safety Link general manager Steve Bruechert said the system worked via a standard telephone line with clients wearing a waterproof pendant which transmitted to the Eastwood Street call centre.
He said if a pendant was activated, call centre staff would ring the client and then put their individual emergency management plan into action if no response was received.
"We take between 700 and 820 calls a day. We are supposed to respond within two minutes and we achieve that 99.7 per cent of the time," Mr Bruechert said.
Other options offered by Safety Link include a GSM dialler, which is transportable, sensor floor mats, sensor bed mats and key safes.
Mr Bruechert said Safety Link had just set up a business development team to set up links with companies all around Australia.
"Our slogan is act locally, think nationally," he said.
"One of the benefits of being part of Ballarat Health Services is we can trial products within BHS."
fiona.henderson@fairfaxmedia.com.au
