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Seniors & Their PERS
The importance of protection in deciding to live at home:
- 87% of customers think that their PERS protection is important or a main factor in their decision to keep living at home.
- Sense of protection at home - 95% of customers feel that they are protected at home by using PERS services. 41% feel very protected.
- Benefits important to customers- 85% of customers feel that being protected is important; 80% feel that the comfort of staying at home is important; 76% feel that being independent is important.
Just the Facts – on PERS
- According to Philips, PERS is already the largest category of home healthcare solutions. Purchased out-of-pocket by older adults and their caregivers. Still, penetration in the age group 65 years and older is just 2 to 3 percent, allowing for significant future growth.
- Studies show that users of these types of systems report heightened feelings of independence, security, and peace of mind.
- BUT WAIT!!! Caregivers need to address that this device is barely a 25% solution! 50% of people who own them do not wear the pendant. Of those who wear them, only 50% actually use them.
- WHY? When a fall occurs, it incapacitates a person in some way. They may be in shock or they may be unconscious, or they may not be wearing the device at all! Those who are in shock are not thinking about the pendent, only about survival. And if a person is on the floor unconscious, there is simply no way for them to seek help. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that the average time spent incapacitated when a fall occurs in the home is approximately 18 hours!
- WORSE? 18 hours is the average, but it is far worse than that because 62% of people who don’t obtain timely help (within a hour) after an incapacitating fall are unable to return to independent living!
- AFDN! That is exactly why the PERS or emergency button you or your loved one uses must have Automatic Fall Detection Notification built into it. (See the Vocare My SafetyButton™ Medical Alert)
- According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people over the age of 65 in the United States is set to jump from approximately 34 million today to 74 million in 2025.
- In 2004, research firm Forrester estimated the PERS market in the United States would grow at double-digit rates, from approximately $350 million in 2004 to $2 billion in 2012.
- There are currently more than 1 million U.S. homes with a PERS unit, and industry followers estimate that an additional 4 million households could use the device.
- IMS Research says the PERS market in North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.6 percent to 2012.
- Currently, most PERS customers are female and over 75 years old.
- Today, the large majority of customers pay out-of-pocket, with government reimbursement for PERS varying from country to country. In 2004, 25% of PERS sales in the United States were government reimbursed, versus 35% in Germany, just over 50% in France and close to 100% in the United Kingdom.
- According to AARP, when baby boomers are asked where they want to live as they age, 90 percent say, "In my home."
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