Need Help w/ Cell Phone Options
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?
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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.HB
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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”?
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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.
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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.
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This has all been very helpful!! Thank you for all of the suggestions!!
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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.
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You can turn off data on a smart phone without putting it in airline mode. Just make sure data (up and down arrows on a Android) and wifi are off. Then the phone can be used for games, texting (but not some group texts) and phone, but nothing at all on the internet.
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Whether he should still have a phone at all is an open question. But if you decide to keep it
Text messages - my mom was getting inundated with spam texts on her iPhone and she kept asking if they are real. I installed an app called “Junkman” that uses AI to filter out junk texts and it works really well. I’d say it eliminates 90-95% of the spam text
as To the phone, go to phone app settings, put it on “silence unknown callers”. Any caller not in contacts, or previously called, goes to voicemail. Make sure any necessary contacts are loaded in contacts
Email - I changed her old aol email to a new Gmail to get rid of all the spam
My mom would get these fake ads in her solitaire app. I tried finding other apps but she liked the first one. Ultimately I just bought an ad free subscription for the app and it solved the problem. It was fairly cheap.
You could get a jitterbug phone that makes things simple. Or with iPhone there is an “assistive access” mode where you can simplify the apps and set it up with a few contacts with big buttons. I tried doing that for my dads phone, but then for whatever reason my mom would pick up his iPhone and say it was screwed up (she didn’t recognize the format) and said she needed to take it to Best Buy. I ultimately had to undo it because I couldn’t explain it to mom and her remember it.
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these are wonderful suggestions! I have the exact same situation with my mom (solitaire, ads, spam texts and calls) and we’ve discussed doing something like the parental controls. Now I have even more suggestions to consider which is wonderful! I hope it works out for you, HCM1234!
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IPhones have the capability to make a contact and picture as an app. (Picture of person is the square app). My mom now calls me because she just taps my face. Ask CHATGPT how to make iPhone easy for Alzheimer’s patient to call and it will walk you through process. Good luck!
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To piggyback onto this thread….. there is a product called a GrandPad. You can rent it or purchase it. The screen is bigger than a phone, but its very simple and easy to set up. He could play his games on it and text on his phone, if that wouldn't be too much for him. Grandpads are great in many settings.
eagle
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Hi all
Im having similar issue with my mother...she is having trouble using her iPhone now so I'm looking for alternate and/or easier ways for her to still use a cell to call me and a few friends when she wants (her living fac just had them 'lock down' due to ppl in the Independent living area getting the Norovirus so shes been more agitated as she hates being cooped up (always did tho :) ) and is having more issues/confusion with calling me and her friend down the hall from her - keeps telling me phone is broken, but its not, she is just pressing buttons messing it up (I just say I'll take a look at it so she feels Im not saying its 'her fault'. I want to get her easier phone).
She doesn't play games now but used to play Solitaire on a Kindle Fire tab I gave her @7 or so yrs ago - going to charge it up - I believe it still works fine - wished I remembered that beginning of week when they told them all they have to stay in their apts! (That should be lifted tomorrow! No one on hrr floor got sick Thank God).
The info on the GrandPad is great. I may look into that for her, also trying to get info on how reliable JubileeTV is (their company site reviews seem all good - albeit a bit general, but the reviews on the page in GooglePlay where you need to download the App (to be able to use the JubileeTV functions) aren't so good.
Thanks for all the good info...Im fairly new to all this and I'm so grateful for these support groups!! Its all so heartbraking, exhausting and so many more 'moods' & feelings for all involved; living and caring for loved ones and those experiencing this shitty disease.
Good thoughts to you all,
Donna R 💖
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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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