Man Down Alarm

What is a man down alarm and how can it help your lone workers?

What is a man down alarm?

A man down alarm (often referred to as an incapacitation alarm) is part of the SoloProtect lone working solution that provides a quick emergency response if a man down device senses the user has suffered a slip, trip, fall, attack, health issue, or has become immobile for any other reason.

Take a look at some of our man down devices below (including our new man down mobile app):

But it’s not only about responding to environmental risk, the man down alarm also offers a means of support when the user is faced with social risk (e.g. aggressive/violent behaviour) and fears for the personal safety of themselves or someone else around them.

Why should lone workers use a man down alarm?

In 2020, there were 65,000 non-fatal injuries reported in Great Britain (RIDDOR) and 29% of these incidents occurred due to a slip, trip or fall. The most common cause of fatal injury was a fall from height, with 29 workers losing their lives as a result of this.

Unfortunately, however comprehensive your health and safety policies and procedures, accidents, unexpected illness and attacks on lone workers can still happen.

You can read more about why, as a responsible employer, you should protect your lone workers here.

Who should use a man down alarm?

Any worker can use a wireless man down alarm for peace of mind that someone will be available should they need it.

However, they are particularly useful for lone workers, workers who often work at height (e.g. builders, surveyors, window cleaners, roofers), public-facing roles (e.g. retail, hospitality or security), community roles (e.g. social work or nursing), or mobile workers (e.g. delivery or lorry drivers). 

How does a man down alarm work?

Depending on the lone working solution you choose, a SoloProtect man down alarm can use non-movement, tilt and/or impact detection to establish if the lone worker is incapacitated.

Typically, if the man down device detects a significant impact or tilt along with non-movement for a period of 2 minutes, the unit will enter a pre-alert phase and start to vibrate and beep to attempt to gain the lone worker’s attention and make them aware the device will imminently raise a man down alarm if left unchecked. If the device is not moved during this pre-alert phase, it will automatically raise a man down alarm (also known as an incapacitation alert).

When a man down alarm is raised, a two-way call is opened with SoloProtect’s Alarm Receiving Centre (or the user’s designated contact) where specially trained operatives will:

• Locate the position of the user who has activated the man down alarm using geolocation tracking solutions,
  
  
• Attempt to talk to the user through the man down device in order to quickly assess the severity of the situation and to reassure them that help is on the way,
  
  
• Call the emergency services and/or alert a colleague or family member as soon as possible.

If our operator cannot communicate with the lone worker, they will still be able to listen in to the situation to try to establish what has happened and determine the severity of the man down incident. They will then quickly decide on an appropriate course of action.

How quickly can SoloProtect respond following man down detection?

In a serious man down situation, time really is of the essence. Our average “time to listen” following a man down alarm being activated is just 4.9 seconds. This is 50% faster than the requirements of the British Standard (BS: 8484:2016).

Moreover, the time it takes our operators to establish what has happened and begin implementing an appropriate response is just over 30 seconds, on average.

Because SoloProtect's state-of-the-art UK Alarm Receiving Centre is BS: 8484:2016 accredited, once the operator has verified the situation, they can bypass the central 999 system and, instead, dial directly into any regional police force in England and Wales using a Unique Reference Number (URN). This significantly speeds up the process of getting help to the lone worker which is vital following any man down situation.

Book a demonstration to see our man down alarm system in action

If you’d like to see our man down alarm system in action, click here to book an online demonstration with a member of the SoloProtect team.