Not high school or college seniors! 
I searched the forum but only thread I could find was from 2009 so I assume the technology has evolved.
My 93 yo MIL lives on her own. She is mentally pretty sharp and physically pretty healthy except for a major case of hypochondria. Not being mean - all of her doctors tell her what great shape she is in for her age, but she thinks that they are all keeping bad news from her (they are not.). Her one actual issue is that she has balance issues occasionally due to an inner ear issue that they can’t quite resolve. She has had some falls but she refuses to use either a cane or walker (too vain), per the doctor’s recommendation. We are realizing that she does need some sort of medical alert pendant or similar.
I’ve been researching, but am kind of overwhelmed with the options. Does anyone have recent experience with these systems? A few considerations: has to be easy to use; does not rely on having a smartphone or any cell phone (she refuses to use those too); not too noticeable to others (again - vanity). We need to be able to take care of doing all of the setup for her. A friend just got one for her dad, the Great Call Lively Mobile, but when I looked the two options were a watch-like wristband which required a smartphone or a clip on/pendant that is large (like the size of a flip phone) and I could see her not using it because of the size. Apple Watch is out of the question for her.
Also, we had initially thought having fall detection was important but after reading info on that it seems that maybe that is actually not a good idea.
Any suggestions for particular systems or info we haven’t considered would be appreciated!
We had Medical Guardian for my dad. He wore a small device around his neck. It was definitely unnoticeable under shirts. No cell phone needed.
No advice. But if I’m ever widowed and thus living alone, I plan to get one of these right away. No sense taking risks.
I got Medical Guardian for my mom. It’s great.
Two votes for Medical Guardian - thanks! I will check them out. Any others?
My dad has the Great Call Lively Mobile. They are worn as a pendant around your neck or clipped to the waist. He had an older model which was larger but has been redesigned to be smaller with longer battery life and a clearer (louder) speaker. Very easy setup.
I like it because it’s shower safe also. No need for cell phone.
You can set it up for GPS tracking also. I like it because dad can indicate who he wants called (the kids, neighbor, anyone from a list you provide with contact info) and they can set up a three way conversation from his device if necessary.
Call and let someone walk you through setup. Make sure they hang on the line until it is totally activated and you get the final test call.
A few year ago mother ordered and set up a device for herself that had pendant, no monthly fees. It was set up to call a list, moving down the list if no answer (me/cell, me/home, my daughter, her apartment manager… . then if needed 911). I was impressed she did it all herself and remembered to do battery tests (while I was visiting, in case something went wrong). When she went on hospice, I adjusted setup to make last item Hospice instead of 911. It was painful but doable.
If she had let me, I would have been willing to pay monthly service fee for a more traditional setup instead of hers (set up to interface with phone to list of of helpers). But it was good she had something. She actually did fall once in her last months and used it to call us for assistance.