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Need Help w/ Cell Phone Options

HCM1234
HCM1234 Member Posts: 3
Third Anniversary First Comment
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in Caring for a Parent

My father has dementia and one area where my mom and I are struggling is with his using his cell phone. He likes to play solitaire on the phone but he doesn’t understand that the ads he receives aren’t real messages. He ends up filling out his information and is inundated with spam text messages and phone calls. I try to clean out his messages but it’s impossible to keep up.

We need a phone where he can call out to only specific people (I.e. family members) and where he can play solitaire without advertisements.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

  • harshedbuzz
    harshedbuzz Member Posts: 5,988
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    Does he really need a phone?

    There comes a time when it's not safe for a PWD to be connected to phones and internet without direct supervision. IMO, if dad's giving personal information out to advertisers, he'd absolutely give it to a scanner over the phone.

    In your shoes, I'd install an offline app and discontinue his phone service. He could use mom's phone to call people.

    Your mom might lock down their credit with the 3 major bureaus in case he's already compromised personal info.

    https://www.nearhub.us/blog/10-best-solitaire-apps-with-no-ads

    HB

  • HCM1234
    HCM1234 Member Posts: 3
    Third Anniversary First Comment
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    I do like to be able to communicate with him during the day though. We text a lot. Is there a way we can text each other but not technically be “online”?

  • H1235
    H1235 Member Posts: 1,355
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    I agree that allowing him access to the internet could end up causing lots of problems if he were to somehow get his hands on a credit card or bank information. Even if that is tucked away he may go searching for it if an online site asks for it. Have you considered just a basic phone (no internet access) and something separate he could play games on that wouldn’t require the internet connection. Maybe some kind of simple tablet you could download games onto that would not require an internet connection to play. Then after the download go into settings and disconnect from the internet. There must be some kind of old school gaming device that doesn’t require internet. Keep in mind that any change in device may be hard for him to learn how to use. I would keep things as simple as possible. I hope you can find a solution.

  • JulietteBee
    JulietteBee Member Posts: 316
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    @HCM1234, you may benefit from putting on a parental control app such as MMGuardian, or by setting up Microsoft Family Safety features.

  • HCM1234
    HCM1234 Member Posts: 3
    Third Anniversary First Comment
    Member

    This has all been very helpful!! Thank you for all of the suggestions!!

  • Pmmommie
    Pmmommie Member Posts: 17
    10 Comments 5 Care Reactions
    Member

    I got my Dad a Kindle Fire from Amazon. He loves it. It's already preloaded with several offline games. I've also downloaded ebooks. Kindle also has a kids' version. Added feature is that the screen is bigger for his card games. It's relatively inexpensive to.

    You can set it up to be a phone as well as a camera.

Commonly Used Abbreviations


DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
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