I agree with earlier poster :Stay away from any product that is under the umbrella of Connect America. I used Medical Alert - one of their products - they own many, approximately 10 products- including Guardian on call for ex- tried both the mobile & in- home unit - not only do they not perform as advertised ( not able to communicate into mobile - so they can not talk to you nor you to them -so not able to determine if there is really a problem or if you're just testing, so for ex, they call emergency #s just for the test-those of you who pay for EMS coming should beware-when I complained about this they say it's because dispatchers are doing job extra well-hard to imagine a more pathetic answer). the in home stationary unit can't pick up a voice in the next room, despite claims that they can do that within 100 feet - there's incompetence on every level- and I figured out how to reach executive office -basic and essential info which i repeatedly provided even to higher ups was repeatedly recorded Incorrectly (existence & location of lock box, phone numbers, protocol of who should be called in what order, preferred hospital, the list goes on) and whenever a mistake was pointed out they attribute to customer instructions as excuse. They went so far as to send a tech to the home but failed to tell tech which system we were using - turns out tech had never seen it before. Amazing they're still in business. Plus if one pays over phone with cc when you get device the " contract" tries to make you sign off on allowing them to directly extract $ from your cc or checking acct- no alternative is offerred- they never disclose that they are keeping your credit card on file when you call - VERY sneaky. I should have listened to my intuition - when shopping around I was asked what other companies I was looking at & they trashed them with inaccurate info - which wa offensive. Someone I know used them so I let that trump my better judgement but I'm warning all of you -stay away. Would also like to know if DS Smallwood got the touch & talk unit...does no further info indicate a problem with that product?

I don't think anyone, anywhere has the perfect health care system. Whether you live here in the US or in Canada, Japan or Germany there are serious issues with implementation. I have a close relative who practices medicine in PA and he has patients who come from Canada, stay in hotels and pay cash in order to receive treatment. Yes it would have been free at home, but in many cases they do not fit the 'profile' of the patient who is eligible under the Canadian medical system to receive the needed treatment or the waiting period is so long their health could be seiously comprised if they waited. Please don't think I'm bashing the CA system, because we certainly are overdue for an overhaul here in the US to improve ours. I'm just pointing out that health care is a serious problem everywhere. Our newspaper wrote a story about a physician in Japan who may only charge $99 for an MRI. However he's having trouble keeping his practice going because he's losing money. So he has installed vending machines in his waiting room and makes patients pay if they want to park in his lot. My neighbor is from Holland and she and her family have been trying to save enough money to bring her mother over to the US for heart surgery. She cannot receive the surgery in Holland because she is deemed to old. I certainly don't have to write about the problems we have here - just read all the above posts. But the problems we have now are only going to get worse. Applications to medical school have dropped. Many who are interested in becoming physicans cannot afford to do so - it's not unheard of to graduate with $300,000 in loans on top of whatever it cost to go to college. I could go on and on. I certainly don't have the answer and unfortunately the situation is tremendously complex.

We got one of those for my MIL about 5 or 6 years ago. She started talking about them after my SIL had a stroke and laid on the floor for 8 hours until her DH came home from work. As a result of that stroke she has been in a nursing home and cannot move the right side of her body. Now if she had one of these maybe things would be different, but, she was only in her sixties and in good health didn't think she needed one. So, we got it for my MIL as a birthday gift (it sure makes it easy every year as to what we are going to get her besides sending her flowers) and she just loves it. She and we have piece of mind. We live a little more than hour away so it will take time for us to react in an emergency. It not only works in the house, but, we went outside in the yard and it worked as far as across the street into her neighbors drive way. So this way if she is outside near the house all she has to do is push the button if she needs help. The company is US and their operators are all US based. We did everything online with them including paying them every year. I would highly recommend them. The name of the company is Alert One http://www.alert-1.com/ Here is a link that might be useful: Alert One

You're welcome Nicole, I wouldn't be surprised and hope you'll let me know the results. A few years ago, I had a cat that had ongoing problems and was told it was probably mites, yet they never went away...well I'm almost certain now it was an allergy to something in his food. I've done quite a bit of research on dog foods and have learned that the foods we feed them can be the culprit for several different problems. Unfortunately, the majority of Vets don't seem to care about diet. I've been on the hunt for a good vet for a while and have been to a few as a result. To my surprise, the only one that has had any interest in my dogs diet is the one we're going to now and will be sticking with. The first thing he asks every visit is what are you feeding her? He's also more conservative with medications which is a plus. We have a clinic here in SE Michigan called All About Animals Rescue. It's basically a group of volunteer vets who offer low cost services for cats and dogs and the fees they charge go towards supporting their rescue/adoption center. I go there for her shots, flea/heart worm control and dental cleanings. The care they provide is top notch but at a fraction of the cost. It's a win win for everyone. A good site to research cat food is Chewy.com - I get our animal food from there, they carry everything under the sun, are priced competitively and have good ship/return policies. They list all the ingredients for everything they sell as well as reviews. I switched our cats to Taste of the Wild a couple of months ago. It's made in the US, has no yeast and is grain free; so far our two kitties have done pretty well on it.