Poole Lifeline Advice
What Happens on Installation
The Lifeline unit requires both an electric socket and a telephone point. For safety reasons these must be sited on the same wall to avoid hazardous trailing wires across floors or doorways. Our representative will be able to advise you on any extensions or adaptations that may be necessary; however we are unable to make purchases, recommend products or tradesmen.
Our representative will complete a personal detail form with you. This will include your name and address, doctor and medical details (which could help in an emergency), next of kin, your keyholders if applicable and any special details about your home, such as locks or access. . Our representative will also carry out a brief assessment of your property to identify any potential problems and hazards they can see that may effect our ability to get assistance to you.
The problems could be:-your house number or name not being visible particularly at night or worse still no house number at all.
Unlit steps and alleys also present a hazard to our staff who visit you in an emergency.
Our representative will make some brief recommendations as to what improvement you could make to assist us in an emergency.
Please note that it is very important that you let us know of any changes to your personal details and circumstances as soon as possible.
Key safes
Some of you may have a key safe or have been recommended to have one installed, these are very useful in time of emergency but they are not 100% foolproof.
Our target is to get help to you in the shortest possible time, and it is not possible to guarantee that there would be a key in the safe when we come to use it. Our policy if you are on the Mobile service, is that even if you have a key safe we would still require a key to be held by us for use in an emergency.
For those of you on the monitoring service we will still need at least 2 keyholders.
When can you use your Lifeline
Here are some of the occasions when you should press your pendant and use your Lifeline.
- If you are feeling unwell and perhaps need a doctor to call, if you have fallen and are unable to get up, or more seriously you have hurt yourself. Unfortunately we are unable to help with your day-to-day care.
- In these security conscious times if you are worried about unwanted or uninvited guests press your pendant and our Lifeline operator will contact the Police.
- We also like you to press your Lifeline pendant every two weeks to test it. This is very important, as it will identify any problems before you need to use your Lifeline in an emergency.
- If you are going away on holiday or into hospital let us know when you are going and when you return by pressing your pendant.
- You must also let us know of any changes to person details like if you change your doctor etc. again you should press your pendant to let us know.
- If you are going away on holiday or into hospital let us know when you are going and when you return by pressing your pendant.You must also let us know of any changes to person details like if you change your doctor etc. again you should press your pendant to let us know.
What if I am too far away to speak to you or cannot speak for some reason
Don't worry we have a procedure to follow. If we are unable to make verbal contact with you we will always make sure someone comes to help you and to find out what's wrong.
We will never call for an ambulance until someone has visited, to assess the situation.
This is to ensure we do not waste the Ambulance service's valuable resources.
Confidentiality
All the information we obtain from you is treated with the utmost confidentiality and is covered by the Data Protection Act.
We will take into account your wishes at all times. But the operator must also take into account the following factors:
- Will lack of action on their part cause further harm to either the service user or others?
- Will the lack of any further action could cause damage to buildings or structure.
In the event of the member of the team taking action, which is against your wishes, they will explain to you what action they will be taking and why they are taking it.
Poole Lifeline works closely with Dorset Ambulance Service and may in certain circumstances pass your personal details on to them. This is covered by an agreed information sharing protocol.
You have the right to see any information we keep on file about you or your family, and ask for any inaccurate information to be corrected or removed.
Help for victims of Cime
Help is available for any residents of Poole who have suffered or are suffering from any of the following:
Burglary, Domestic Violence, Intimidation, Anti social behaviour, Racial Harassment
A key holder will be required to cover if you are not at home or are unavailable. Without a key holder the system cannot be installed.
Installation can be for a limited period (minimum one month) for short-term reassurance, or on a long-term permanent basis.
Poole Lifeline works closely with Dorset Police and has agreed a strict Code of Practice for dealing with calls from such installations, it cannot however guarantee any form of response from the Police in relation to any of the above installations.
What happens if there is a fault on the system?
Should any part of the installation become faulty we will rectify the problem on site within 24 hours, if we are unable to rectify the fault a replacement unit will be installed at no extra cost.
Poole Lifeline cannot be held responsible if the failure of its installation is due to other organisation's equipment or any extensions or appliances you may have in your home or work carried out to telephone system e.g. computers, modems, telephone lines or changes to wiring.
Please note that if we find the fault is not with our equipment then a £25 + vat charge may be made for our attendance.
Victim support systems are excluded from the above arrangements, please contact us for details.
What to do if you want to change the service provided to you or you no longer require the Lifeline Service
In the event that you no longer require the Poole Lifeline service you must contact us on 0800506050 to arrange the collection of our equipment and the return of any keys we may have them.
If the reason you are cancelling is because your circumstances have changed for any reason, for example financially, please let us know we may be able to help you with alternative funding or support.
You want to change the service you receive, phone the number above and one of our representatives will make an appointment to come and see you.
Please refer to section on 'How do I apply' if you do want to change your service.
What we ask from you
We would expect that you will not act in an abusive, either physical or verbal, way or be under the influence of alcohol or drugs if we are to provide a service to you. We therefore reserve the right to limit assistance to any persons that are threatening or offensive towards any member of staff.
We will ensure that anyone we deal with is treated with respect and courtesy, in return we ask our customers to treat staff with the same respect and courtesy.
If you are a smoker we ask that you respect our right to work in a smoke free atmosphere and refrain smoking whilst we are visiting you and for about an hour before our appointment and open any windows and doors to ventilate the room if you can.
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