Confusion with TV remote controls

Jenny1234

Registered User
Aug 28, 2015
1
0
Looking for any suggestions!

My grandad has Alzheimer's and currently lives alone but is increasingly relying on my mum and uncle for help, although neither is local.

Lately he's been phoning almost daily for help with his TV because he gets confused with turning the right things on and pressing the right buttons in the right order. He then tries to solve it by turning it off at the mains which makes things worse.

At the moment they help by talking him through it each time but this can end up taking hours. They've also left a diagram and written instructions but these don't seem to help. I guess the problem is just with this form of memory for being able to carry out a task.

I wondered if anyone had a useful suggestion for something else to try ?
 

Linbrusco

Registered User
Mar 4, 2013
1,694
0
Auckland...... New Zealand
My parents have Sky TV in their lounge, and Dad only knows how to work the remote.
Mum with Alzheimers has a TV in her bedroom, and we replaced the remote with one of these which has worked really well.

http://www.amazon.com/Tek-Pal-Remote-Control-TEK/dp/B0016RNSHS

We have programmed Mums favourite 4 channels despite having 25.
She only has to press the channel up and down button.
 
Last edited:

rainsong

Registered User
Aug 9, 2013
10
0
We made a cardboard sleeve that we taped over the remote control for my MIL. It has cut outs for the on/off button, channel up and down button and volume buttons. We wrote large labels on the sleeve for these buttons. This seemed to help for quite a while but now she has started losing the remote control and pulling all of the plugs out of the wall.
 

looviloo

Registered User
May 3, 2015
463
0
Cheshire
TV remotes and telephones cause my dad all kinds of problems these days. He used to be an engineer, so it's completely frustrating for him not to be able to use gadgets properly.

He pressed the wrong button a few days ago and the picture went smaller, so he decided to fiddle with the cable around the back of the TV in an effort to fix it. That caused him to set the emergency alarm off in the care home and a good deal of panic was caused! All for the sake of the TV remote!

Sometimes I think it would be better to have a TV with buttons on it, like the old days...
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
TV remotes and telephones cause my dad all kinds of problems these days. He used to be an engineer, so it's completely frustrating for him not to be able to use gadgets properly.

He pressed the wrong button a few days ago and the picture went smaller, so he decided to fiddle with the cable around the back of the TV in an effort to fix it. That caused him to set the emergency alarm off in the care home and a good deal of panic was caused! All for the sake of the TV remote!

Sometimes I think it would be better to have a TV with buttons on it, like the old days...

I quite agree
 

sinkhole

Registered User
Jan 28, 2015
273
0
My aunt also pulls all the leads out of the TV and DVD player when she can't get it to work.

She says there are too many leads. There should only be 2 apparently...

I'm not sure what to do about this other than glue all the leads in place. It's not an expensive TV, so although it couldn't be sold on, I'm thinking this is probably the best answer!

Buttons are the secondary issue, but like rainsong, I think the best thing will be to cover up the ones she shouldn't press and put big arrows and clear labels on the others.
 

skaface

Registered User
Jul 18, 2011
109
0
Ramsgate
I made and printed out a step by step instruction sheet on how to work the Freesat once mum had it installed under the government's big switch to digital. Up until the switchover she professed that she couldn't do it, but once it happened a miracle happened and she was suddenly able to do it, which makes me wonder if she was putting it on then (not now, she hasn't a clue now!).

Nowadays the big battle is working out where she's hidden the remotes - I find them in all kinds of weird and wonderful places.

One thing I did need to do though was take it off automatic standby, when that happened she was accusing my cousin of interfering with it to me, my sister, and his mum, which is a stupid thing to do.
 

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