Does anyone have any tips?

[Whiskers184]

My mother in law has almost no short term memory now. She has a mobile phone which she can still occasionally use. She keeps it in her pocket and tends to switch it off if she’s not using it. We have tried telling her not to switch it off and left prompt notes to try and remind her but unfortunately these days she doesn’t really notice the notes or associate them with anything. it’s not just the phone, it’s pretty much anything now. Should we just accept that prompts don’t work any?

 

[Louise7]

Hello @Whiskers184 I think it does sound as though your mother in law is sadly now past the stage when prompting will help. My mum had a very simple mobile phone but like your mother in law kept switching it off, and she also switched off the charger if we plugged it in. She said that she didn't want to waste the electric. We tried various things to help with the problem such as message boards and electronic reminders, but nothing helped. Mum got to the stage when any kind of prompting by way of notes, reminders etc just didn't work any more so we accepted that there was no point in us keeping trying as everyone was getting frustrated. Sorry I don't have any tips for you but others might have some suggestions.

 

[SherwoodSue]

Mum sometimes struggles with the comms tech we have in place. She has a Nest camera which has a Mike function which I don’t usually use. Once in desperation I did use it to say clearly, your daughter is trying to speak to you. Switch on the phone. It did work but for a while she walked around the house looking for me.

 

[Whiskers184]

Thanks SherwoodSue and Louise7! Yes I think you’re right and we’ll have to accept that prompts and notes won’t work anymore. I just bought a whiteboard, but she doesn’t look at it or understand instructions now.