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Telus announces expansion to PERS service with acquisition

Telus Wednesday announced plans for the national expansion of its LivingWell Companion personal emergency response service (PERS) with the acquisition of Quebec-based DirectAlert.

DirectAlert is a bilingual company offering PERS. According to Telus, its acquisition makes Telus the largest Canadian-owned PERS provider.

DirectAlert will continue to provide service into 2020 under new DirectAlert by Telus branding. At some point early next year, all of Telus’ PERS customers will be supported by its LivingWell Companion platform.

“In the next 10 years, seniors in Canada will make up nearly a quarter of our population in Canada and require considerable support from our healthcare system and their caregivers,” said Juggy Sihota, vice president, Consumer Health, Telus, in a statement. “By leveraging the power of technology we can deliver innovative digital tools, such as virtual care or wearable fall detection devices like LivingWell Companion, providing the support and dignity needed to live independently at home for longer while maintaining the freedom to live life to its fullest focusing on the activities they love, while knowing they can still get the help they need in the event of a fall or emergency.”

The LivingWell Companion offers optional fall detection and 24/7 emergency assistance. The LivingWell CompanionGo service provides GPS tracking and automatic fall detection.

Earlier this year, Telus announced a massive expansion to its home security business with the acquisition of ADT Canada, which closed last month. Telus made earlier investments in the market when it acquired the Western assets of AlarmForce from BCE in 2018.