I need to get a dementia clock for my Mother who is in the early stages of dementia.
They seem quite expensive. Has anyone managed to get one cheaper than £40?
Have these clocks made a big difference to anyone you know with Alzhiemer’s? I wonder if my Mother will forget to look at it?
Thanks
Dementia Clock
Becomes essential at some stage in course the Dementia, in particular if you can not be present.
I live in Switzerland and can only call my sister at least, but I have caring friends and carers who make sure her paper agenda is filled out with the daily events. At least I can call up and ask her what day it is, look at the big white clock on the mantelpiece, and then get her to turn the page of her diary. Currently, with help, she can still correlate this.
I bought her the Robin, 2020 Version, Digital Day Clock on Amazon 2 years ago, and it is still in use. There are now newer, improved versions, but I agree the price is astronomical. But what are you going to do without it. For 2 years now at least, it has been useful.
What is important to note is that it switches over automatically to the correct Daylight Savings time in Autumn and back again in the Spring. The numbers and letters are large enough to be read easily. I found out recently when I visited her that my sister coped better with the a.m. / p.m 12 hr clock than the 24 hr display.
Of course, the PWD person does forget to look at it, but you can remind them. My sister still twiddles her roll date calendar around each day, usually several times
and you just have to constantly remind her that only the big white clock is correct.
Newer versions probably have a battery backup in case of a power cut, I'm not sure ours does. We had a power cut of 2 mins whilst I was there in June, but this is very unusual. But it restarted again and was 2 mins slow, of course and easy for me to adjust. Not for her, which is fortunate!
In my opinion, unless you are visiting daily, then it can be a great help. My advice would be to get her trained to using it now, later she will still try and use the clocks and calendars she has used her whole life.