Automated phone system checks in on vulnerable people living alone

Programme Pair is a free resource available to seniors and people with diminished capacity or a chronic health issue who live alone.

The automated calling service phones the home of subscribers as often as they like to check in and make sure they are ok.

The Sherbrooke branch of the program is managed by the Sherbrooke Police Service.

According to SPS sergeant Alain Roy, Pair has been around in the area for over 25 years.

“The average is 80,” Roy said, regarding the age of subscribers.

Roy said there are two types of calls. The first, and main focus of the program, is security calls. A subscriber can determine the frequency of the automated check-ins, either once or twice per day, even tailoring the schedule to have the calls at different times on different days.

The computer makes the scheduled calls, and the subscriber simply answers the phone and presses any number on the keypad to confirm that they are ok. If the system calls and there is no answer after three attempts, Roy said the SPS will then try to reach a secondary contact, usually a family member or neighbour. If no one can be reached, police are dispatched to the address of the subscriber to check on them.

A second service available to Pair subscribers is a reminder call for those who might be prone to forget when to take their medication, or to check their blood sugar level.

Pair has 100 per cent coverage of the Townships, and is available across roughly 80 per cent of the province, Roy said.

Each region has its own way of running the program. In many areas community organizations (centre d’action bénévole) manage Pair.

“In Sherbrooke the SPS does everything from A-Z,” Roy said. The SPS will often include a home visit when subscribers first sign up to make sure they are in a secure living environment and make recommendations if necessary.

Sherbrooke has between 250-300 subscribers, Roy said. There are usually around 50 new ones each year, he added.

The Pair service gets an average of 400 alerts per year. In some cases the subscriber forgot about the scheduled call and went out, or didn’t hear the phone ring.

Roy said last year there were around seven situations where the SPS intervened with emergency services.

In most of the cases, people had fallen and couldn’t get up, Roy said. On one occasion, a woman in her home was feeling unwell and dizzy and couldn’t get up to answer the phone. She was transported to hospital as a precaution.

Roy said there were two instances when Pair alerted the SPS to people with heart conditions who had close calls in their home. Luckily those people had subscribed to two calls per day, one in the morning and one in the evening. Roy said if a full day had passed between calls the subscribers may not have survived.

Roy stressed that the program is free of charge and any citizens in a vulnerable position who could use a check-in from time to time.

Anyone in the Sherbrooke area who would like to subscribe to the Pair program can call the SPS at 819-822-6080, ext 0.

Anyone in a different part of the Townships looking to subscribe can visit the website at www.programmepair.com or call 1-877-997-PAIR (7247).