Remote assistance is a service that allows a person who lives alone at home to notify a platform available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the event of illness or a fall, for example. A very useful service especially for the elderly. The implementation of remote assistance, which can be offered by public or private organizations, requires little technical installation at home. Its cost, on the other hand, can vary significantly depending on the type of contract chosen. In order not to be mistaken, it is recommended in the first place to opt for the remote assistance contract that best corresponds to your real needs. Our advice for choosing the right remote assistance contract.
We talk about remote assistance to designate a service that allows people who live alone in their homes to notify a third party if they encounter a problem such as, for example, the onset of discomfort, after a fall, etc.
This is why remote assistance is a service that can be very useful, especially for elderly people who live alone and in whom, as we know, the risk of falling, feeling bad, etc., is greater.
In concrete terms, teleassistance is a service that allows you to be put in contact, in the event of a problem, with a person (a teleoperator) available on a dedicated platform who can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. relationship with a teleoperator in the event of need for assistance, it is enough to press on a medallion, or sometimes a watch according to the organizations of teleassistance, that the old person in this case carries permanently with him.
In addition to having to wear either a medallion or a watch, to benefit from remote assistance at home, it is necessary to install specific equipment there. It is a system of speaker microphones that allows the teleoperator to communicate remotely with the person who has fallen or who has had an illness at home.
Thanks to its small pieces of equipment that you can carry on your person continuously, and which act as transceivers connected to a listening centre, the platform is notified in the event of a problem. An operator calls back the person who has signaled that they are in distress and can then communicate with them using the speaker microphone system.
Depending on the seriousness of the situation described by the person who contacts the remote assistance platform, and after having precisely assessed the situation, the teleoperator directly contacts a relative of the person in difficulty (family, neighbour, etc.) whose contact details have been provided. when the remote assistance contract is concluded, or triggers an intervention in the home of the elderly person who benefits from remote assistance, by calling the emergency services, for example, in particular if the person does not answer.
Different organizations may offer telecare services. These may be associative structures, which work in particular with the elderly, sometimes local authorities (municipalities or departments) and private companies.
Depending on the organization and the type of remote assistance contract offered, the cost of this home service may vary. The latter is most often applied in the form of a monthly subscription and also includes installation costs for the speaker microphone system, as well as the medallion or watch worn permanently by the person who takes out a remote assistance. For example, La Poste offers a remote assistance service whose subscription includes assistance itself in the event of a problem and the installation of the necessary equipment, the price of which starts from nearly 22 euros per month. .
To choose the right remote assistance contract, you must turn to a service that is truly adapted to your needs. If you still have fairly good autonomy, the basic remote assistance contract (provision of an assistance platform and installation of the necessary equipment) is sufficient for you because you have the option of pressing the medallion or the watch that alerts the platform.
If, on the other hand, the remote assistance is aimed at a dependent elderly person, you can opt for an extended remote assistance contract, i.e. one that offers options such as the provision of a detector bracelet fall. Thanks to the latter, the person who falls at home has nothing to do, the bracelet automatically detects a heavy fall and notifies the remote assistance platform on its own. Another example:you will need a more extensive remote assistance contract if you have a large home, especially if its configuration can cause more falls.
Some public or private structures that offer remote assistance services can also offer you, in addition to their basic services, what are called comfort or conviviality calls. By this we mean calls made regularly by their operators to the person concerned by a remote assistance contract to ensure that everything is fine at home. A service of course often charged extra.
When you choose a remote assistance contract, find out about any costs that the organization or company may charge you in addition to the subscription and the installation of equipment in your home. Some of them, for example, may charge an additional fee if it is necessary to call the emergency services to help you.
Good to know:elderly people who receive the Personalized Independence Allowance (APA) can benefit from the cost of a remote assistance service. Some municipalities can also contribute financially to the installation or subscription costs of this very useful service at home.
If you wish to have recourse to remote assistance and find out about the public or private organizations that offer this service and be advised in your choice of contract, you have the possibility of contacting your town hall or the local information point (a structure dedicated to seniors sometimes called the local center for gerontological information and coordination, the CLIC) located closest to your residence.
In summary, remote assistance is a very useful service, especially for people who live alone at home. But, choosing the right contract requires choosing the one that best suits your needs, without optional services that ultimately turn out to be pointless and whose cost is of course added to the initial invoice.
