What is the Best GPS Tracker for Elderly Parents?

According to the CDC, over 3 million emergency room visits occur each year due to falls by older relatives. And those aren’t all at home, either. 55% of fall incidents among seniors occur at home, while 23% occur outside the house but nearby. 

These are worrisome statistics, and we definitely want to make sure our elderly parents are safe. But we can’t stay with them all the time; nor can most of us afford a permanent caretaker. 

GPS trackers for seniors offer a balanced alternative of cost, convenience, and security. This small, pocket-sized device can provide the means for our elderly parents to preserve their independence and freedom of movement, while at the same time providing both peace of mind to their kids and caretakers, and an effective means of contact should something go wrong.

A quick scan of any online marketplace will show you dozens of GPS trackers, each with their own capabilities and costs. So which one should you choose?

Our GPS Tracker recommendation: The Spytec Micro

While we can’t honestly speak for GPS trackers from other brands (the discussion would be incredibly biased) we can wholeheartedly recommend the Spytec Micro GPS Tracker. It’s our smallest, lightest tracker and can easily fit into the lifestyle of your average senior citizen.

Let’s go over the specifics:

Why the Spytec Micro is good for your elderly parents

It’s convenient

Measuring 0.5" x 1.25" x 2.5", the Micro is incredibly small for a GPS tracker. The tracker can:

• Fit into a shirt or pants pocket

• Fit in a belt bag or belt pouch

• Attach to a lanyard and be worn around the neck. 

This makes it easy for your parents to carry the tracker around with them at all times without tiring. It also has a long battery life of up to 12 days on regular mode (and 34 days on extreme power saving) so that your parents don’t have to worry about charging it every day. Once a week will do.

It’s safe

Should one of your parents fall, get lost, or be in any kind of distress, the Spytec Micro GPS has an emergency button that instantly transmits its current location. And just to make sure you don’t miss this important alert, you can change its settings and have it blast across all your communications channels: email, app notification, and SMS. 

Why the Spytec Micro is good for caregivers

It’s flexible

Not every senior citizen has the same living arrangements or health conditions. Fortunately, the Spytec Micro GPS has many capabilities that can be used to fit how your elderly parent wants to live. 

Geofencing is when you draw a digital boundary around a location, like your parents’ house or a nursing home. You can set up notifications to know when they leave and return, like if they went for an afternoon walk or if they went out on an errand. These alerts get sent automatically, so there’s no need for them to text you.

Live link sharing lets you share your parents’ current location with other people, like siblings or a nurse. Unlike phone-based Bluetooth trackers like Android or AirTags, you don’t need a specific device to view a shared link. 

It’s reliable

Bluetooth-based trackers like AirTags rely on nearby devices to work. If there aren’t any, then that tracker’s updates are going to be slow and unreliable. 

GPS trackers work off of GPS satellite technology, which is much more reliable and has a wider reach. Signals are sent using 4G, which exists all over the world–even in remote or rural locations. 

Some users have experienced problems with GPS trackers indoors (especially concrete buildings), but reacquiring a signal is a simple matter of going near a window or stepping outside. 

Spytec GPS also makes it easy to keep track of your parents’ movements. All data from Spytec GPS trackers can be kept up to a year, and the Time Machine function lets you review their activities across an entire day, a single trip, or even a single stop. 

Try Spytec GPS today

Spytec GPS trackers are designed with the needs of our users in mind, whether that’s seniors living independently, teens driving their first car, or business protecting their assets. If you have any questions about GPS tracking, reach out to our GPS experts and we’ll find the right tracker for you.