Fall detection for seniors in Singapore: watches, sensors and buttons compared

Why fall detection matters most for people who live alone

Singapore’s falls prevention guidelines put the share of adults aged 65 and over who fall each year at 20% or more. For someone living with family, a fall is usually noticed within minutes. For someone living alone, the danger is the long lie: in a UK study of people aged over 90, 82% of falls happened when the person was alone, and 80% of those who fell could not get up after at least one fall, and 30% lay on the floor for an hour or more. Call alarms were widely available but were not used in most of those cases (Fleming and Brayne, BMJ, 2008). That is the gap fall detection tries to close.

The four approaches, compared

Smartwatches: Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch

On an Apple Watch, check that fall detection is switched on in the watch settings and that Wrist Detection is on. After a hard fall the watch taps the wrist and sounds an alert. If the wearer does not move for about a minute, it counts down for 30 seconds, then contacts emergency services and messages the emergency contacts with the location. It needs cellular on the watch or a nearby iPhone, or Wi-Fi calling. On Samsung Galaxy watches, hard-fall detection is off by default; once turned on, it sends an SOS with location to emergency contacts after 60 seconds.

• Strengths: detects the fall itself, works outside the home, can call for help when the person cannot.
• Limits: only helps when worn and charged. Many seniors take watches off at night and in the shower, which is when bathroom and night-time falls happen. Small screens and daily charging put many older users off.

Room sensors that see a fall

Radar, depth and LiDAR sensors watch a room and recognise the shape of a person falling or getting out of bed, without a camera image. They are used mainly in nursing homes and hospitals in Singapore, where one sensor per bed or room is affordable. SoundEye, a Singapore company, combines depth sensing and sound recognition and lists several local nursing homes as users. For homes, HDB has worked with commercial vendors since April 2024 to offer optional fall detection packages to HDB households, such as thermal sensors that watch for falls. HDB does not endorse the products, and families buy directly from the vendors. Cost and coverage (usually one sensor per room) are the things to check.

The government option: HPC+ fall and movement monitoring

Since April 2026, the Ministry of Health’s Enhanced Home Personal Care (HPC+) programme includes an optional 24/7 technology-enabled fall and movement monitoring and response service, provided by HPC+ providers using vendors whitelisted by MOH. Providers describe a 24/7 monitoring centre that checks each alert and calls SCDF when needed. One provider, Homage, lists a rate of S$100 a month before subsidy, and the service is means-tested; Since July 2026, MOH subsidies for home and community care go up to 80% for Singapore Citizens, and up to 95% for those born in 1969 or earlier. AIC lists HPC+ from S$25 an hour before subsidy. To apply, talk to the doctor at the hospital or polyclinic, who assesses your parent and refers them. See the guide to HPC+.

Buttons: simple, but someone has to press

Alarm buttons are the most common “fall device” in Singapore homes, and they work when the person can reach and press them. They are not fall detectors. The research above is the reason not to rely on a button alone for someone living alone. The guide to emergency buttons compares the options.

Inactivity monitoring: noticing when nobody presses anything

Inactivity monitoring does not see the fall. It notices what follows when someone living alone cannot get up: movement in the flat stops. It needs nothing worn or charged, covers every room with a sensor, and also catches emergencies that are not falls, such as a faint, a stroke or a person too unwell to get out of bed. Its weakness is time: absence takes a while to become meaningful, so an alert comes later than from a watch that felt the impact.

How Birdhouse does it

• No movement anywhere for 4 hours between 08:00 and 22:00: an urgent alert by default, and you can shorten it to fit your parent’s routine.
• Too long in the bathroom: still there after 45 minutes with no movement anywhere else, urgent by default.
• Not up by 10am, with a bedroom sensor.
• SOS button: one press reaches everyone who looks after the home at once, at any hour, and escalates until someone acknowledges.
• Device health: a hub offline or a sensor gone silent is reported, so a broken device is never mistaken for a quiet day.

Birdhouse is not an emergency service and does not detect falls directly. It alerts the people you choose. In a life-threatening emergency, call 995.

A sensible combination

• Active parent who wears a watch: a smartwatch with fall detection for outside and daytime, plus inactivity monitoring at home for when the watch is off.
• Parent who will not wear anything: inactivity monitoring with a bathroom sensor, plus an SOS button by the bed and in the bathroom.
• Parent who needs help with daily activities: ask AIC about HPC+, which can include 24/7 fall and movement monitoring.
• HDB flat, wanting a dedicated fall sensor: look at HDB’s optional fall detection packages from partner vendors, available to HDB households since April 2024.
• Parent in a rental flat: the government alert button, plus passive monitoring for the days nobody presses it.