In today’s hectic world, people are often so busy in their day-to-day lives that they have little time to spare for thinking about home security issues. While adults make sure to teach children and grandchildren how to stay safe when crossing a road, when in school, when socializing and even when online, they sometimes overlook the need to make sure the whole family is protected from unwanted intruders. Criminals these days are using increasingly sophisticated methods to commit crimes, including gaining access to premises under false pretences and stealing identities to plunder checking accounts. Never before has home security been so important for family wellbeing and safety.
Detect to protect
Some important protective systems to have in place include those that can detect potential hazards inside the home. Smoke detectors will alert residents to a possible fire indoors, while carbon monoxide detectors will warn individuals of the presence of the odorless gas, which is capable of killing in a very short time.
Seniors living alone can also benefit from both of these detection systems as well as from a medical alert system that can summon assistance in an emergency, at any time of day or night. Severe injuries in older adults are commonly caused by a fall; in fact, academic studies have shown that every year, one in three adults aged 65 years and over have a fall in their home. Nowadays, older people can wear portable devices that help them call medical services and members of the family for assistance. These devices can come in pendant form and are easy to wear and use, and have a good range, so they are effective even when in the garden.
Sound the alarm
With everything inside the home in place to ensure family wellbeing, remember to also take precautions outside of the house. Burglars are good at finding points of entry – a flimsy lock or an open window, no matter how small, are weaknesses in the security of a property. By themselves however, the strongest locks are not sufficient, as these days determined intruders travel with the tools to dismantle door hardware or break a window virtually silently.
A burglar alarm, on the other hand, is an impressive deterrent, and the systems available today are highly sophisticated and effective. The range of ingenious features includes remote controls for automatically activating an alarm, wireless monitoring and video surveillance cameras, enabling convenient home surveillance from a computer or a cell phone. Alarm monitoring from remote locations is a particularly useful development in burglar alarm technology and well worth considering: learn more about alarm monitoring for your home.
Combating crime
Undoubtedly, burglar alarms act as a deterrent to criminals. The U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges that one in six homes are targeted by burglars, though 90 percent of convicted burglars have reported that they would avoid a home that was protected by an alarm system. The National Burglar and Fire Association states that homes with a security system are three times less likely to be burgled. All of these home security measures offer peace of mind and protection for the whole family.
