A Phone for Grandpa

Mel2301

Hello everyone, my grandfather was diagnosed with early onset dementia about a year ago now, he was on some medication that was helping for a while but its not helping as much anymore. He has recently forgotten how to use the landline he's had in his home for the past 10-15 years. My dad and I have been struggling to find him a phone that is easy enough for him to understand, we've tried one of the phones for seniors where the numbers are big and he just has to push a couple buttons in order to make a call and he struggled to use it. He says not being able to make a call makes him feel incredibly isolated so the entire family has worked very hard to try to teach him this new phone to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions on what phone we should get him or any pointers for how to teach him this new phone? Thank you!

EDIT: Hi again everyone, thank you so much for all your help. To answer the main question being asked, my grandpa does live alone but my uncle lives next door. My family and I have been discussing having someone move in with him but it is difficult as everyone works and no one can afford to be able to take care of him full time. We live in a very rural area deep in the south so it is also difficult to find a facility where we would be comfortable putting him in. Again, thank you all for your help.

jfkoc

Take a look at this;

Memory Picture Phone | Telephones For Dementia | Large Button Phones for Seniors | Alzstore

M1

Hope you find something that might work. My experience has been that once there is difficulty in these areas, nothing I have tried has helped because there is inability to adapt. At the suggestion of an occupational therapist in memory care, I recently bought one of the very simple music players through the alzheimer's store (only an on/off button), but my partner won't use it and just unplugs it. She also repeatedly unplugs the lamps on her bedside tables.

Marta

Does your father live by himself?

harshedbuzz

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here, but happy you've found this place.

The ability to use familiar technology tends to become a problem in the middle stages of the disease. When he was diagnosed was he "Early Onset" (before the age of 70) or Early Stage (mild dementia)? People with EO sometimes has a faster disease progression which means families have less time to adapt proactively to their LO's needs and abilities.

Either EO or ES, because the short-term memory needed to learn how to use new technology is lost fairly early on, if he can't operate the phone he's had for 15 years from muscle memory, introducing a new one is not likely to be a success.

Is his current landline an actual hardwired landline or a VoIP? Is it a standard Bell touchtone or dial phone or is it a cordless handset? I found my own dad retained the ability to use an old-fashioned Bell Telephone Slimline phone long after he could use a cordless handset or even his old flip phone. We probably got another 4 months of dad independently using the phone by bringing in a true landline and ancient phone I found in my basement.

That said, my mind went to @Marta 's question, is your Grandpa living alone or living with someone who's gone much of the day because of work or other obligations? I would be concerned about his safety as well as his emotional well-being. If someone is usually there, he might do well in a senior day program. If he's still alone, family will need to assess whether the time for moving in with family or joining a memory care community is the safer option.

In the time period when we thought dad could use the landline, my mom sometimes left him home alone for an hour or two thinking he'd be fine. When their HVAC was being installed, she asked me to stay with dad while she went to the doctor just in case the techs had a question-- she didn't want dad going on one of his fanciful remodeling delusions and screw with the install. While they were soldering a pipe, they set off the smoke detectors. The tech yelled down that it was from the soldering and that he'd turn them off when he was done in a minute or two. After about 30 seconds dad asked what the terrible noise was. I explained it. He sat for another long 30 seconds, stood up slowly and toddled off muttering something about telling my mom. He'd forgotten she wasn't there. At no time during this did he call 911 (he had a phone in his lap and one next to the sofa) nor did he ask me to. In a real fire, he'd have died. He never stayed alone again.

HB

MN Chickadee

He likely can't learn any new device. There comes a point in dementia where they simply cannot learn new technology no matter how intuitive or easy it is. As others have said, if he is living alone he shouldn't be. A caregiver will need to facilitate his calls for him. You may find an Amazon Echo or similar helpful because you can set up certain people to "drop in" where he won't need to do anything or press anything, but again, will need a caregiver telling him a call is coming in and where to look etc. It probably won't come naturally.

terei

I agree with Chickadee. I doubt he he will be able to use a cell phone if he cannot figure out the land line

SDianeL

MY DH can no longer use any phone. He can barely use the TV remote. I make the call when he wants to talk to someone which is also now rare. The Nurse who did our evaluation for caregiver help asked him what he would do if a fire broke out in our apartment and he said he would try to put it out. They asked again and he had no clue to call 911. The VA recommended we get an emergency device that he could push one button if I needed help. I used it when he had an episode of high blood pressure because he was so dizzy I couldn't get him to the care to take him to the ER. I also don't think he could learn any device. If so he probably shouldn't be alone.

CaliforniaGirl-1

I tried a picture phone for my LO and it was failure for several reasons:

1- She doesn't reliably recognize people from pictures. So Iabeled the pictures with everyone's names in large letters. Still didn't work because:

2- As someone said, it is difficult/too late for her to learn new technology, even if it meant to be simpler. She just tried to dial the numbers the old fashioned way and ended up dialing whoever's picture was the one on the first number of the area code .

What did work was getting a very simple, old fashioned phone and printing out a list of family phone numbers. At this point she only calls one person, me, but having the phone is very important to her.