by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A chaplain to seniors asked:

Do you know where I can get a doorbell type device that can activate a vibrator worn by a fairly deaf senior?

There are a good number of alerting systems available that flash lights and shake beds, but to my knowledge, there are only three systems that have wearable vibrating receivers. Of the three, I can only recommend two, as I found the third very unreliable when I purchased it.

Both of the two I can recommend are made by Silent Call. The legacy system uses a vibrating pager you typically wear on your belt. When the doorbell (or any of the other alerting devices that are available) goes off, it vibrates and a light comes on to let you know which device is trying to alert you.

The newer system uses a vibrating wristwatch instead of a pager. I am wearing this vibrating wristwatch as I type this. I love it! Besides vibrating, it shows an icon on the watch face. For example, when the doorbell goes off, it shows a “door” icon at the same time.

Both of these systems are flexible. Besides alerting you to the doorbell, they can alert you to the phone, your alarm clock, to smoke detectors, CO detectors, sound monitors, fire alarms, window and door burglar alarms, weather radios, etc.

When you are in bed you can put them in their charger/docking stations and with bed vibrators plugged into the docking units, they will alert you while you are asleep too.

You can start with a basic system and add to it whenever you want. For example, you can start with just one transmitter (e.g. doorbell) and one receiver (e.g. pager or watch depending on the system) and if you want to, add more transmitter modules as you find the need for them. I use the doorbell, telephone, smoke detector, fire alarm, CO detector, and sound monitor modules at present, although I also have the weather radio module as well.

You can learn about (and purchase) the newer Signature Series modules (wristwatch series) here, and the older legacy series (pager series) here.

Besides the body-worn receivers, both series also have bed table (and other) receivers that flash lights and have bed vibrators. I use them too. I love how flexible these systems are. I have tailored them to fit my exact needs. I’m sure you will find they will do the same for you.