Tunstall Telecom are re-launching the TalkBack trigger as we go to press (September 2003).

It is a portable trigger with a speech link and is supplied with a version of the Lifeline 4000 along with one ordinary trigger.

You can carry the TalkBack around with you on a belt clip and press the button to call for help. It is bigger than an ordinary trigger, but when the call centre (or your helper) receives the call, you can talk with them even if you are too far from the alarm unit to use its speech system. Tunstall say that it will work anywhere around a home or garden. If you try to use it outside its range, the TalkBack warns you with a tone and its small light.

You can also use the TalkBack to pick up ordinary telephone calls, by pressing the button when the phone rings, like a cordless phone. You have to recharge it regularly. Put it on the recharger, as in the photograph, at least every night and more often if you use it a lot for ordinary telephone calls.

RNID are going to test the TalkBack for people with a hearing loss. The results will be in their One in Seven magazine - free to RNID members. Contact RNID for further information.