Single-button paging device or phone for the elderly?
 

Hey guys,

Up until a few months ago, my granny was doing OK, but then she took a turn for the worse. She may have had a small stroke or something, but almost overnight she started having problems with dementia, memory loss, etc. She's now down to her last marble, and it's rapidly disintegrating.

My dad is her main point of contact for when she needs something, but she's degenerated to the point where she can't figure out how to call him on the phone a lot of the time. So, I went on a hunt for a simple devce which could call or page my dad with the push of a single button, so she can get ahold of him when she needs to, but I can't find such a device, nor can I think of a simple way to rig other devices to do the same.

I can find cell phones that have a single button which calls 911, and I can find Elderly-alert types of products, but they send a signal to a monitoring center who alerts the authorities... which is not what we need (nor do we want the monthly monitoring charge). She'll probably go to a rest home in a few months, but as things are now, the expense is a problem.

Any ideas? We just need to provide her with a way to press a single button which will either place a call to my dad, or at least alert him that she needs something... and it needs to be mobile on the receiving end of the signal. Be creative!

Nextel. (Done.)

Seriously, if she could manage the button on the "push to talk" mobile phone, it would completely solve the problem, wouldn't it?

I did think about that, but really, it may be too tricky for her to learn. Ideally I'd like to find a fire-and-forget device which will page my dad, and he'll call her back.

An example of the learning problems she's having... her purse disappeared a couple months ago, with her money, keys, ID, etc. In case it was stolen, my dad changed her locks so the theif couldn't get her address off the driver's license then go use the keys to let himself in. Well, she used to have the push-in-the-knob-and-turn lock on her doors, but they don't make those anymore, so they put in the ones with the thumb-twist. She can't figure those out, as simple as they are, because they're too different from what she's used to. Yeah, pretty bad.

One idea I have is to get a speed-dialing phone, program my dad's number to one of the buttons, open up the phone and disconnect all of the other buttons, then link all the buttons together somehow into one large button (or make all the buttons engage that same speed-dial button). But I'd like to find something that would take less work and be less kludgy than that. Nextel may be the answer if I can find nothing better.

...as another example of her inability to grasp anything complicated, her current phone is a basic cordless, and she cna't figure out how to turn it off after a call. So she leaves it on, and then nobody can get through. So if I go with a phone, I'll probably try for a corded phone with a handset cradle, so it'll be sure to get hung up properly (in theory).

Hmm... this may be just the ticket.

We went through this with my wife's aunt last year. In the end, we had to put her in an assisted living place.

Yeah, I think it will come to that, but right now the family is trying to figure out how to pay for assisted living. Those places are about $1300 per month here, and she blew all her money on scams and sweepstakes stuff a couple years back, so everyone else would need to pool extra money or something in order to pay for it. Blah.

Sorry to hear that HP. We had the exact same issue with Lynn's aunt. Fortunately, Lynn's dad intervened before all her money was gone.

Good luck with your grandma.

How about this? Autodialing phone with neck-worn transmitter to trigger pre-programmed numbers.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/smarthomeinc/tewidi.html

Just a thought to go along with the programming on the phone. Find a phone that you can press and hold an number (like for three seconds) and it will dial a number stored in that memory. Then instead of trying to do a bunch of rewiring, just program all of the speed dial button to the same number. As long as she can remember to hold _any_ button down for x amount of time, then it will connect.