Big button telephones and Echo Show

[SallyKat]

Hello

I’m interested to hear if anyone has experience of using Echo show to call into a parent living alone with dementia? Up until recently my Dad has been able to use his landline telephone to call me but that’s increasingly difficult. I wondered about getting a new phone with large numbers or whatever the Echo Show would be helpful. Thank you for any advice 😊

 

[silkiest]

Hi @SallyKat, my dad and mum in law have used Echo shows for a couple of years now. You can only have one account active on the app at one time so I keep an old tablet with dads account on it. Its easier then to keep contacts, books and photographs totally separate. I manage the account from my laptop ( its really easy to switch between amazon accounts on the computer but not on apps). There is a "drop in " facility which the person setting up to the account has to grant to people but it means friends and relatives can see and speak to him without him having to do anything using the Alexa app. The echo show can also be used as a camera if your loved one is at home but it does not record video. I have turned off that option now as dad moved into a care home this weekend. The carers seem to like it and are using the photographs on it to talk about dads life with him and they have got it to play his favourite music for him when he is in his room.
Dad is very deaf and the volume keeps resetting to a default level so if he is struggling to hear me I just get him to say "ALEXA volume 7 which seems loud enough at the moment.

 

[Jale]

Not sure if I have imagined this, but I'm sure I've seen a large buttoned phone but instead of numbers it has a picture of the person whose number it is - obviously the number is programmed in.

 

[try again]

My mother couldn't use any phone, we seem to have bought hundreds of them! For us, the echo show proved invaluable using the dropping in function. Sound is loud, they don't need to do anything .

 

[SallyKat]

Hi @SallyKat, my dad and mum in law have used Echo shows for a couple of years now. You can only have one account active on the app at one time so I keep an old tablet with dads account on it. Its easier then to keep contacts, books and photographs totally separate. I manage the account from my laptop ( its really easy to switch between amazon accounts on the computer but not on apps). There is a "drop in " facility which the person setting up to the account has to grant to people but it means friends and relatives can see and speak to him without him having to do anything using the Alexa app. The echo show can also be used as a camera if your loved one is at home but it does not record video. I have turned off that option now as dad moved into a care home this weekend. The carers seem to like it and are using the photographs on it to talk about dads life with him and they have got it to play his favourite music for him when he is in his room.
Dad is very deaf and the volume keeps resetting to a default level so if he is struggling to hear me I just get him to say "ALEXA volume 7 which seems loud enough at the moment.

That’s really helpful info! Thank you

 

[SallyKat]

Not sure if I have imagined this, but I'm sure I've seen a large buttoned phone but instead of numbers it has a picture of the person whose number it is - obviously the number is programmed in.

Definitely not imagined it as I’ve seen those too! They look useful so will investigate further. Thank you 😊

 

[SallyKat]

My mother couldn't use any phone, we seem to have bought hundreds of them! For us, the echo show proved invaluable using the dropping in function. Sound is loud, they don't need to do anything .

Brilliant! That sounds great. Thank you 😊

 

[Toopie28]

Definitely not imagined it as I’ve seen those too! They look useful so will investigate further. Thank you 😊

I got something similar to this.

 

[Sarah Birmingham]

Hi the echo has been a life saver.Always dropping in and chatting from my phone.

 

[Toopie28]

Hi the echo has been a life saver.Always dropping in and chatting from my phone.

Yeh, those are great. Unfortunately Ma thinks I'm just a head now and has no idea how I get into the "box".