Dementia, Alzheimer's, and Falls: The Hidden Home Danger

Dementia affects more than memory. It can impair judgment, spatial awareness, attention and gait, and it often coexists with the physical changes of ageing — all of which raise the risk of falling. Adults with Alzheimer's disease have a 43.55% annual fall prevalence and average 1.30 falls per person per year (Simpkins et al., 2024), well above the roughly one-in-four annual rate in the general older population. Crucially, cognitive impairment also changes what happens after a fall. A person may not remember how to call for help, may not recognise that they need it, or may become disoriented — so the response gap that affects everyone living alone is wider still.

For someone in the earlier stages of dementia living alone, the free daily check-in is often the most valuable layer, because it turns a missed daily tap into an alert to family — no phone call, no button-pressing, no memory required. Alongside it, check-first phone fall detection is coming to the I'm Alive app in our next update (v2.3.0): it detects a hard fall, checks on the person first, and — if there's no response — alerts the trusted contacts you set up, with a location. It runs on the phone (no pendant or smartwatch), it is opt-in and off by default, and it never calls 911. It is best-effort, not a medical device, and does not diagnose or treat dementia. It is included from the Protect Me plan ($29.99/year). Alerts go to family who know the person — not to a call center or emergency services — so the response can be shaped around their needs. This is a support for families managing early-stage dementia at home, not a replacement for a care plan or clinical supervision, and it is not designed for someone who can no longer safely live independently.