T-City offers mobile emergency call system for senior citizens

These days, many senior citizens want to live their lives independently for as long as possible. But at the same time, they want assurance that, in an emergency, help will be close at hand. T-City together with Fonium Deutschland GmbH is offering these people a new kind of emergency call system for when they are on the move: With derBUTLER®, users can make a distress call to family members or an emergency call center from anywhere at any time. A positioning system patented Europe-wide ensures that the emergency teams find the person needing help quickly. For the search and rescue, T-City has brought two more project partners on board: the fast response units of the German St John’s Ambulance (JUH) and the German Red Cross (DRK).

Headlines, such as “Police search for 96-year-old” or “Nursing home resident missing” are no rarity. Time and again it happens that elderly people lose their bearings and can’t find their way home. But falls or other accidents can also lead senior citizens to find themselves in an emergency situation unnoticed. In order to enable quick action in such cases, T-City has now launched an additional project for fast aid, on top of the T-Mobile alarm call: “Together with our partners, we want to give senior citizens a greater feeling of safety in their everyday lives and thus improve their quality of life,” said T-City project manager Kurt Bächle. 

Companion with four buttons

Stefan Schmitt, from the management of Fonium outlines exactly how derBUTLER® works: “Regardless of whether at home or out shopping, a user can make an emergency call at any time at the press of a button. An integrated hands-free function allows him to speak to the first-aider, even if he does not have the device at his ear. If the user falls, the system automatically registers this and independently makes a voice call to the emergency call center.” Further functions include a medication reminder, room monitoring and the telephone function. The developers have also placed huge importance on making the device user friendly especially for older people: It can be entirely operated using four large buttons.

Reliable locating in three steps

With JUH and DRK, T-City has again brought strong partners on board for the project. In an emergency, the two aid organizations with their fast response units under the direction of Jürgen Bauer (DRK) and David Bercher (JUH) search for the distressed, missing or injured person. For this purpose, Fonium and T-City equip the first-aiders with special handheld locating devices.

These devices are part of a new kind of positioning system patented Europe-wide, which derBUTLER® uses. The person is located in three steps: their rough location is found via the cell phone network; from close-range, their position is pinpointed via an integrated tracking device and a beeping sound emitted from the device. This procedure allows rescue teams to reliably find someone, even where other methods fail, such as in buildings or underground garages.

derBUTLER® is already available from many pharmacies in Friedrichshafen. During the trial period, Fonium and T-City are offering the system on a rental basis on special terms in two different versions (the FamilyCare Mobil package and the ProCare Mobil package).