A precious sort of pendant

Community and family life is increasingly dependent on technology for maintaining social contact. Elderly people who live alone are now receiving emergency bleepers funded by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. These connect them, via the telephone, to a call centre which is staffed 24 hours a day. In an increasingly fragmented community, it means a lot when there's always a voice on the end of the line ready to listen. One woman using the scheme, which is administered by voluntary groups, telephoned every night for a chat until shortly before she died.

In the event of a fall, sudden illness or at tack, an elderly person can summon the Garda and emergency services simply by pushing a bleeper that hangs around the neck. A loudspeaker system attached to the telephone lets a reassuring voice talk to them as they await help. Lives have been saved already by the bleeper, which enables older people like Agnes Nee of Kylemore, Co Galway, who is quite disabled, to remain independent yet feel secure - and without feeling like a burden on anyone. When an emergency occurs, the special telephone can be programmed to ring three neighbours, as well as the emergency services. The scheme is run by voluntary groups such as Forum in Galway AS), which has set up Agnes Nee, and about 100 other older people, with bleepers at a cost of £285 each, given by the Department, plus a £1 per week contribution from the user. The only drawback is that, despite encouragement, some older people fail to use it because they may feel too proud or fear the technology.

One man using the scheme collapsed in a shed and died of hypothermia - he had left his bleeper on the mantelpiece. Generally, however, the scheme has been extremely successful. "It's a brilliant system in the rural context," says Kathleen Aspell Mortimer, supervisor of a social care programme for the elderly in Ballinakill, Co Galway, which administers the scheme. "Society has got to the stage where we need this. There are more women going out to work, so that the support system is not as effective as it used to be. There are often two careers required to pay a mortgage and once the bleeper is installed in the elderly parents' home, the children can go to work in peace, knowing that if something happens they will get word about it immediately."