A system for detecting and discriminating the severity of a fall includes a mobile device configured to communicate a network, a notification module, and a wearable device configured to communicate with the mobile device, the wearable device including a fall monitor and an activity log resident on the wearable device, where the fall monitor is configured to record detected movement on the activity log. The notification module is configured to effect a selectable setting of a rate of communication between the mobile device and the wearable device based on at least part of a predetermined pattern of a fall discriminator within the activity log, where the selectable setting defines a predetermined period of communication between the mobile device and the wearable device. The fall discriminator is configured to determine when the activity log includes a notable fall event based on the predetermined pattern.