Worried about an elderly parent living alone
Your mom or dad wants to stay at home, and you want that too. But with an elderly parent living alone, nobody else is in the house, and you can't be there every hour. If something happened on a quiet afternoon, who would know?
Lots of people ask the same thing. About three in ten older people who get help from family live alone, and nearly four in ten of those who are 85 or older (AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, 2025). More than half of adult children whose parent lives alone say they worry about their parent's safety (The Senior List, 2026).
How often should you check in?
Many families settle on a daily call. That works until the day nobody picks up, and then you have no way to tell if anything is wrong.
A daily check-in gets you that answer without the call. Here's how the check-in works, and when you get an alert.
If someone insists on living alone
Arguing rarely works. It helps more to keep what matters to the person you look after:
- Staying at home, with the same routine.
- A normal watch, instead of a pendant that everyone can see is a medical alert.
- A say in it. Pick the check-in time together, so it fits the person's day.
What Lanturne tells you
Here's every alert you can get, and what happens when one comes in.
Getting started
Here's which watch and phone you need, and what it costs.