Contrary to the popular misconception, a medical alarm system’s use is not actually limited to medical emergencies. But rather, thanks to its compact design, wireless technology, and the fact that it runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it is perfect for a variety of other life-saving purposes. If you or your aging loved one already has one of these alarms, then you should know these top secondary uses for the device you’re probably wearing around your neck.

Regaining access to a locked house: a personal emergency alarm system can be used if, say, you suddenly find yourself outside your own locked house with no key. It happens to the best of us. But how can such an alert system provide solution in such a situation? This is so because most alarm system companies provide a secure lockbox for an extra key to your house. The lockbox is just designed for cases in which an emergency occurs and the medical response team arrives at a locked house and could not gain entry—with a spare key safely stored in the secure lockbox, the medical personnel would not have to waste any time fumbling around flower pots looking for the spare key or trying to bring down the door with a battering ram.

An intruder is in your house: imagine this scenario: it is late at night, and you feel or hear that somebody’s in the living room. You are alone in your house, and the phone is in the kitchen. Fortunately, you are wearing a medical alert. Such a system is very convenient—as you are wearing the panic button at all times, anyway, you do not have to find a phone. All you need is press the button, and it should work even if you’re hiding in your room or in your closet. There are also cases when, upon activation, the response center attendant speaking through the speakerphone of the home base unit is enough to scare away the intruder, mistaking the voice as that of a responding police personnel.

Natural calamities: Scientists say that our changing climate is making severely destructive inclement weather more and more common. And by "common," we do not mean "acceptable." If anything, we have to be more vigilant regarding our health and safety, especially those who belong in a vulnerable demographic, such as seniors, young children, or persons with certain disabilities. An alarm system can serve one in such situations because it operates wirelessly. Say, for example, you wake up one night with several feet of flood water raging around your house. Or maybe there’s a fire and there’s no way you could reach the home’s phone. In such unfortunate situations, the thing that could provide the silver lining—and one that can actually save your life or that of your loved one—is a personal emergency response system whose panic button you’re wearing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The round-the-clock availability simply ensures that you are fully covered—you never know when a disaster hits, anyway.

Domestic violence: there is a growing number of otherwise young, healthy women who are using such personal alert systems to protect themselves from an abusive spouse. Many of these women are trapped in an abusive marriage, whereas others are being stalked by an obsessed ex-lover. In any case, they use a wearable alert system to get instant help when danger shows up at the door reeking of booze and looking for someone to hurt. A single press of the panic button is all it takes to get well-qualified assistance.

Other special emergencies: what if something happens and you must reach your loved ones as quickly as possible? Because any modern personal alarm system allows the user to input the contact numbers of the people closest to them, contacting these people can be done in a single press of the panic button.

As you can see, a medical alarm system can be used not only in situations that are strictly "medical" in nature. Anytime you need assistance, all you need is press the panic button—you don’t need to hesitate whether or not pressing it is justifiable or is actually included in the device’s terms of usage contract. If you need any help and you must speak with someone who is professionally trained to help you any hour of the day, any day of the week, there is perhaps nothing more efficient than a modern personal alarm system.