Older adults and/or homebound individuals invited to sign up for daily computerized phone calls to residents to reassure well-being
SALEM – Mayor Dominick Pangallo invites older and/or homebound residents of the City of Salem to register for the CONFIRM OK Telephone Reassurance Program. Residents should sign up for this FREE program if they live alone and would like a daily computerized phone call to assure they are ok. Contacting an older adult and/or a homebound individual on a daily basis helps to reassure their well-being and give them a feeling of security. Confirm OK (formerly Are You OK? ®) is a telephone reassurance system that also eases the concern of friends and family who may find it difficult to maintain consistent and reliable contact.
Each day at a pre-arranged time (8:00 am), the system automatically makes computerized monitoring calls to all residents who are registered with the program. The phone # on recipients’ caller ID will show as 978-464-9114.
If the subscriber doesn’t answer after a preset number of call attempts, an alert is given visually on the computer’s monitor. The emergency contact person on file will be notified. The Salem Police Department will go out to conduct a “well-being check” if this person does not know where the subscriber is.
If senior owns home: they are giving permission to the Salem Police to install a lockbox.
If multi-family: homeowner must give permission for box to be installed.
If multi-unit building (6+ units including condominiums): they are required by law to have a Knox box.
The Social Service Team will work with Fire Prevention to have your unit key placed in the Knox box.
If Senior Housing Property: Knox boxes are located at all our properties and the Police and Fire Department have access to these boxes. The master keys to all units are inside the Knox boxes. If for any reason, any emergency personnel cannot access a building or unit, they can call the housing authority’s 24 hour maintenance line at 978-744-7616 to request immediate assistance.
Policy:
- Subscriber must be a Salem resident.
- Subscriber must complete a “Field Interview Form” with the Social Services Department at the Community Life Center (401 Bridge Street, Salem) and sign a waiver of liability.
- Subscriber must agree to have a “lockbox” installed by the Salem Police Department on the exterior of their home in which a key to the home is placed in case the police need to conduct a well-being check.
- Subscriber agrees to contact the Social Services Department at 978-744-0924 to inform when they will not be home for your calls. The Social Services Department will put calls on hold during the times reported by the Subscriber or their emergency contact.
- The Subscriber will not hold the city nor its employees responsible for a system failure.
*There are times the computer system may not connect on your call. There are 3 attempts (8am, 8:05am, 8:10am) before the alert is sent to the police department.
TO SIGN UP OR FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT THE SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT AT 978-744-0924.
