Cell phone for dad. Any advice?

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Cell phone for dad. Any advice?

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My dad seems to have a lot of trouble on his cell phone lately. He blames the phone but I think it is him. As an example I will call him and he will disconnect rather than answer. He means to answer so then he gets frustrated. He can’t seem to navigate email or text very well. I think he still sees text when I send but I’m not sure. So the question is do the senior designed phones really help? The one I was looking at is the lively jitterbug smart phone 3. But it would require learning something new even if it is ultimately easier to use. I live 4 hours away and really want my dad to have a cell phone. They have a home phone too but for some reason it is hooked up to a fax machine.

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I'm another proponent of the RAZ Memory Phone. (Google it for more info.) It's saved our lives. The caregiver has a remote dashboard and sets up the contacts and all your dad has to do is press the circle with their face to call them. The caregiver can also control who is allowed to call your dad, so no worries about spam calls. You can set quiet times for the phone, set ring tones, and more. Best of all, for about $6/month, you can sign up for their emergency service, so if dad presses the 911-Emergency button (required by law to be on a phone), they intercept it and talk to him and contact the caregiver(s) first before dispatching fire/police. This is optional, but my hubby calls 911 thinking they're an answering service, so it's saved us from false alarms and penalties. Without the RAZ phone, my hubby would not have a phone at all, so I'm glad I read about it here on this forum. Good luck.

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I've used several so-called senior friendly phones and all were too complicated for my mother until I bought RAZ. Seniors that have trouble with technology do not need TEXTS and cameras, etc.
Im all for RAZ.

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When my mom was in assisted living I took her old turquoise princess phone to her. It had large numbers and was land line. It worked perfectly. She could not figure out texts or anything on a simplified cell phones for elders and she had been a telephone operator for over 40 years.

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As soon as my mother was diagnosed with progressive dementia, or maybe even before that time, she started having trouble with her telephone. It was a landline. She convinced me it was the phone that was a 'piece of crap' so I bought her a new one, designed to be 'easy for seniors to use'. Well it wasn't, b/c she was having issues with IT too. And those issues just kept getting worse and worse as the days wore on. She started telling me 'the ladies voice is telling me I have to dial a 1 first' or 'the ladies voice is telling me not to dial a 1 first' and on and on, to the point of insanity. Then she started using her phone to turn the tv set on and could not, for the life of her, understand why it wouldn't work.

Then she started turning the volume off of the phone to the point where she couldn't hear me. And all I'd hear was her screaming WHAT??? into the phone over and over and over again. Then she'd push the wrong button on the phone and disconnect the call. And I'd call her back only to hear a busy signal for the next 2 hours.

Or then she'd forget to push the OFF button on the unit and nobody could call her at all; the phone would go directly to voice mail. Which she was unable to access b/c she couldn't remember her passcode which was 0000.

To say the phone turned into a living nightmare is putting it mildly. There were days I wanted to drive down to the ALF and literally tear thing thing out of the wall and smash it to smithereens with a hammer. But I didn't. Because I recognized the phone was her only means of connecting with the outside world on HER terms. But boy howdy, she couldn't get the darn thing to work so that she COULD connect with the outside world! Nobody could get through to her for a variety of reasons, and she couldn't figure out how to listen to her voice messages, which led to the 'nobody ever calls me' tirades, and there you have it.

The Phone Aggravation That Never Ends.

Wishing you the best of luck b/c I have NO ADVICE to give you on this subject. Except you have my condolences and heartfelt wishes for Godspeed on the whole matter.

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Experiencing similar types of things with my loved one. He calls the police because his phones “aren’t working” and someone has a machine to cut them off. We’ve bought new phones, switched phone services, etc. etc. He also manages to turn the volume down on the phone and we get the same conversation of WHAT? WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU. Sigh…the phones have truly been the biggest nightmare we’ve had in trying to take care of our 89 and 91 year old aunt & uncle. So, I feel you!!!!

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Try an old fashion corded phone. My mom is able to use Future Call Big Button Speakerphone Model FC-8814.

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My hubby had a nice Android phone, but never could figure out how to swipe the screen to do anything. Couldn't even figure out how to answer a call, see a text. So we got him a flip phone, where all he had to do was open the phone to answer. Still can't do it. We have a home phone, one of the captel phones that show calls on the screen and what they say. Check the settings on the phone, maybe it's set up to be a fax. Contact your phone carrier?

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Disconnect the Fax machine if it is not being used.
That could be a problem if they ever tried to call 911
And as I read Geaton777's response that is echoing everything I would have said. So Just reread that response and imagine I typed it all out 😉🤣

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I will disconnect the fax. Thank you for your response. 😀

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Same situation with my father. He has never been good with technology. Never did email or text. None of it. He could use his iPhone to make and receive calls, and liked to read the news on it but he would always manage to get it on some setting by mistake that would screw it up. Well along came ALZ and his iPhone was a nightmare. He kept saying his phone was broken and went out and bought a new iPhone. Even worse because it didn’t have a home button so basically it was unusable for him. I bought him the jitterbug 3 smartphone. I had high hopes, but honestly it’s still way too hard for dementia patients to use. They get frustrated and just start pushing buttons and make it unusable. Basically you don’t want a smart phone. You don’t want anything with settings that they can can access by mistake. You don’t want anything that is more than one button to make a call. Get the RAZ phone. It’s a picture of a person and that’s it. They touch the picture and the call is made. No settings, no voicemail, no internet. And the caregiver can control the phone through an on line portal. It’s really the only one that works if you want a cell phone.

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Bought that for my Mom, had a landline installed. She refuses to use it. Wants her cell phone which she can handle some of the time. Whatever she wants, she gets.

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There are now landline telephones that have "close captioning" which would be helpful whenever someone calls [like a teen grandchild] who speaks at warp speed.

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Warp speed - I hadn't thought of that, but that definitely describes someone I know. It's almost as if all the words have to be shuffled out of her mouth as quickly as possible, regardless of whether or not they can be understood.

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Kmjfree, once the fax machine is unplugged from the telephone wall jack, your Dad can once again use his very easy to use landline telephone. For us of certain generations, landlines are ingrained in our brain. We can use them blindfold.

Landlines phones can be in every room of the house. When it rings, just pick up the receiver. Call is over, put back the receiver. So simple. There is no re-charging of the phone. And one would have a difficult time doing a butt-call with a landline. Most important, when 911 is called, the house address immediately shows up on the 911 dispatcher screen, thus if someone is having a stroke and can't talk, the dispatcher will know what to do.

I have a senior cellphone that I am ready to pitch out the window. It is NOT easy to use. The instruction booklet is 150 pages long, and is not written in process-writing form to help a person understand how to set up the cellphone. Plus, 90% of the time, whenever I pick up the phone my palm hits the Alert button, thus I need to scramble to cancel the call. And I have yet to find out how to pull up any voice mails, the instruction book has zero information. Don't waste your money.

No one needs a cellphone. I spent the vast majority of my life without a cellphone, and we survived. My parents spent all of their life [lived into their 90's] without a cellphone. Yes, nice to have in a car in case of a car breakdown since phone booths are now only seen in old TV shows. Most elders no longer drive.

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I’ll unhook the fax. My Dad wants to throw his phone out the window too! Lol!
i think I’ll skip the senior phone. Sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. He has an iPhone now and at least he is used to it. Wish there was a better solution for seniors.

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The OP lives 4 hours away.

Is it a fax machine or a printer all in one? If part of the printer, there should be a way to turn it on and off. I never hooked mine up because it meant using my landline or having a separate phone line.
Is there not a relative or neighbor who can go over and disconnect the fax line?

If Dad is forgetting how to use a phone that he has had for a while, then I don't think getting him a new one will help if Dementia is the cause.

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Not sure if all in one. I will have someone just disconnect the fax line. Can’t imagine what they would be faxing anyway.

Dad is forgetting how to use. The Raz phone mentioned by ainorlando looks interesting. One screen and 6 to 30 contacts. It would be really awesome if it had a find my friends kind of option.

Cell phone for dad. Any advice?

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