Protecting the protectors: MedicAlert offering free one-year service, button to COVID-19 frontline workers

If frontline workers are out in the community protecting Canadians in the fight against COVID-19, then who is protecting the frontline workers?

That’s the question the team at MedicAlert — the very same business who supplies help buttons for seniors, as seen on TV — asked themselves.

Knowing they had the resources to help, the team at MedicAlert had found the answer to their question: it could be them to offer the protection, and they’d do this through the Frontline Workers Campaign.

“If COVID has taught us anything it is that we have more vulnerable populations who have been exposed during this pandemic than we ever thought,” Leslie McGill, CEO of MedicAlert Foundation Canada, told Sam Laprade on An Hour to Give.

As McGill explained, over two million frontline workers across the country have been exposed to the dangers of COVID-19, or have other medical conditions that make them vulnerable during this time, and they still go to work every day.

So to make sure everybody who works on the front lines who is concerned with their health and wellbeing feels safe, MedicAlert is offering them a free button and one-year subscription to its service.

Workers can use the button in situations they find themselves in where they can’t speak for themselves.

“We had lots of conversations inside of our organization about how we can help the frontline,” McGill said. “There are so many who emerged as heroes during this pandemic, and we’re in the business of protecting people and saving lives. Working with those who are vulnerable and I think that’s one of the key things that makes medic alert so great is that it doesn’t matter what your condition or concern is — we’re here to help people feel safe during this vulnerable time.”

MedicAlert, McGill explained, is also a registry. This registry contains the information of all of its members — so, if the member uses their button but is unable to talk, MedicAlert will have what they need to help them.

According to McGill, about 1.5 million Canadians have had MedicAlert at one point in their lives.

“We want to make sure every Canadian has access to our services, is able to be protected in their time of need,” she said. “We want to help people understand that this is a service that is available to them, and that we’re a charity as well.”

Much of the services, McGill said, is covered by donors and small fees paid by users.

All first responders who are interested in getting their bracelet and the free one-year service just have to do is call MedicAlert, identify themselves as a frontline worker, and they’ll be protected, McGill said — it’s that simple.