Call Blocking - Certain outgoing calls

Barber1990

New member
Sep 20, 2019
1
0
Hey everyone,

My nan has dementia and keeps ringing people out of the yellow pages for things that are completely unrelated, for instance, a garden to look at her curtains. We have removed all call books (yellow pages etc). But she still ring numbers she gets through the post or the newspapers. She is with Plusnet and they are unable to block all calls out except family or the ones we could set. I was wondering if anyone knew of any solutions, if there is a phone that we could set up that has this functionality inbuilt?

Thanks,
 

Helly68

Registered User
Mar 12, 2018
1,685
0
I am not, I am afraid, aware of a phone with this functionality.

I would say, from bitter experience, be careful of introducing any call blocker unless you are certain that the PWD cannot "block" random numbers themselves.

My Dad (who doesn't have dementia but is forgetful and anxious) got BT call blocker, which he initially loved. No more calls from all over the world offering to fix his microsoft.

However, he got so keen that he would block any number he didn't immediately recognise, or if he didnt fancy taking the call. I had to get him to reinstate my own number and my sisters when we worried that we couldn't contact him. He was perplexed, cue frustration all round.

It may be possible to get a very simple phone with buttons for specific numbers programmed in but I think it is very hard to anticipate what someone with dementia might do.
 

ITBookworm

Registered User
Oct 26, 2011
456
0
Glasgow
A truecall unit (https://www.truecall.co.uk/Default.asp) should be able to help at last partially. The "Secure" version, can certainly block some outgoing calls but it might take a bit of tweaking the settings to stop your nan entirely.

They aren't cheap but they do work! We have a standard one because we were totally fed up with the number of junk/sales calls we were getting - now the phone only rings if it is legitimate caller. Their web site is good and when we have ever had to phone them up the people on the phone have been great as well.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
I think it might be a question of how you read it @nitram

I read it as - they want to black all calls apart from ones to specified numbers, but Plusnet is unable to do this.
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,081
0
Bury
As I read it Plusnet can set up a whitelist of outgoing numbers
The problem is with outgoing calls not incoming
 
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Lynmax

Registered User
Nov 1, 2016
1,045
0
We installed the Truecall Secure unit at mums house and it meets all our needs. Mum was being pestered by scammers so I set it so that only numbers I input (ie family and friends from her address book) can get through to her. Everyone else gets a message from me asking them to call me on my mobile if they need to speak to mum - as yet no one has!

It also has the facility for me to create a list restricting her to limited numbers of outgoing numbers that she is able to call, ie the same family and friends but we have not needed to do that yet. Her main outgoing calls are to 1471 to see who last called her then she dials them! This can be a bit annoying to someone who was the last to call her, but we just put up with it. She still has some capacity and I think she would know if we restricted her use of outgoing calls.

For the first year it is free to monitor all calls via an app and I log in every now and again to see her phone useage. I can then back any persistent callers but I have not needed to - as none get through!

I might restrict outgoing calls in future if there are any issues. It is rather expensive, around £125 but well worth the cost. I think it's the only system which does not require the pwd to press buttons on the phone to accept or reject calls. Mum does not even know we have installed it as we've hidden it under a cupboard!