Door sensor that plays voice recording

[deedeetee]

My mother in law has just started leaving her home during the night, hopefully this is a UTI and not progression of her dementia. She lives with my father-in-law, but he also has dementia and is not a reliable source of support.
There is a call alarm system in place, with a door sensor; however by the time the call has connected to the call centre, my mum in law has left the house, and my father in law is left in a panic and so the police are called.
What we need is a device that can play a message from one of us that tells her not to go out. But, we need it to only work within set time limits (otherwise she will just acclimatise to the sound, she has a clock that plays different bird song on the hour, which she believes is a bird that is trapped in the chimney, that sings to her every hour...)
All the sensors we've found are battery operated and without the option to set a time limit. We cannot trust either of them to be able to set one up every night, nor can we ask the carers to do this, as the last care call is too early, as it's to support with preparing their main meal. Everything we've found seems to be directed to adults who have carers living with them, but that's not supportable in my in-law's situation.

Has anyone found a device that would work for us? Ideally, it would be connected to the door sensor, so once the door is opened (between 10pm and 7am), the recording could be played...

 

[silkiest]

Hi @deedeetee , I've not heard of a device like that. I'm wondering if any local electricians would be able to rig some sort of device connected to a voice recorder for you

 

[Bunpoots]

Welcome to Dementia Talking Point @deedeetee

In my experience any verbal warning not to leave the house will just be ignored. Once a person with dementia gets the urge to wander it’s difficult to stop them and the only way to keep them safe is a secure carehome.

When my dad started going out at night I managed to keep him temporarily safe by locking his front door and hiding the key. He could still get out into the back garden but not through the locked gates and onto the street. I only did this because it was summer. I started looking at carehomes as I knew I couldn’t keep him safe at home much longer.

I hope this is just a UTI.

 

[Cazcaz]

My mother in law has just started leaving her home during the night, hopefully this is a UTI and not progression of her dementia. She lives with my father-in-law, but he also has dementia and is not a reliable source of support.
There is a call alarm system in place, with a door sensor; however by the time the call has connected to the call centre, my mum in law has left the house, and my father in law is left in a panic and so the police are called.
What we need is a device that can play a message from one of us that tells her not to go out. But, we need it to only work within set time limits (otherwise she will just acclimatise to the sound, she has a clock that plays different bird song on the hour, which she believes is a bird that is trapped in the chimney, that sings to her every hour...)
All the sensors we've found are battery operated and without the option to set a time limit. We cannot trust either of them to be able to set one up every night, nor can we ask the carers to do this, as the last care call is too early, as it's to support with preparing their main meal. Everything we've found seems to be directed to adults who have carers living with them, but that's not supportable in my in-law's situation.

Has anyone found a device that would work for us? Ideally, it would be connected to the door sensor, so once the door is opened (between 10pm and 7am), the recording could be played...

I’ve not heard of these, but they sound a genius idea.

I wonder if you CAN get plug in ons? Then set up a timer, like you might do for a plug in light if you are on holiday.

I don’t know much about this situation (my mum is in early stages Alzheimer’s) but you could try a security light, like people have for their houses that sense movement and come on but only at night. Would a sudden, unexpected light shining right at her (not blindly but direct) make her shut the door again? (Only a guess.)

 

[Sarasa]

Hi @deedeetee and welcome to Dementia Talking Point. This is a very friendly place and you'll get lots of suggestions and advice here.
I was wondering if this site https://meetadam.co.uk/ might help you find something suitable? My mother is now in a care home but when I used it to discover what sort of things might have helped when she was at home the suggestions seemed very sensible.
However as @Bunpoots says once the urge to wander starts it can be very difficult to persuade someone that they should remain where they are. I know some people have has success with video doorbells attached to apps on their phones so they can see when this happens and talk through the app to persuade their loved one to return, but I think anything is going to be a short term measure. Your mother in law is either going to have to have someone staying with her all the time or move to a care home in the not too distant future.

 

[northumbrian_k]

If the disembodied voice is not simply ignored, as others have suggested, it might become a cause of anxiety. It would not be a great leap to imagine that someone with dementia could come to believe that there is a stranger in the house. Rather than helping to stop wandering it might become a source of worry that makes the person with dementia all the more determined to leave. From my experience any kind of signs, audible signals or other alerts will work only for a short time, if at all. Supervision is likely to be the only solution.

 

[Jaded'n'faded]

I believe @Lynmax had a system whereby she could speak to her mother when she ventured out. Hopefully she'll be along soon to tell you what worked for her...

 

[Lynmax]

Yes I did, we had a Ring doorbell and security cameras which alerted us when she went outside. The system was linked to an App on our phones and we got an alarm when they were activated. The cameras allowed us to see what mum was doing and talk to her through them. Mum was obsessed by cars parking outside her house and would go out and peer through the windows, kick the tires, pull at the wipers etc. I used to shout at her through the cameras to tell her to go inside and make a cup of tea! Mum was fairly compliant, although I don’t think she knew where my voice was coming from, and once she was in the house I would phone her to break the thread of her anxiety. Luckily mum only went out at reasonable times as I don’t think I would have heard my phone if asleep but I did warn her neighbours about the possibility of hearing me bellowing out!

The cameras also allowed us to keep track of how long she was out when she went for a walk to the shops, had we not seen her come home within a reasonable time limit, I could have driven round to look for her or phoned her local shop to see where she was, or even phoned the police.

The video recording option was very useful when she was scammed by someone asking for money at her door as I was able to show it to the police and they used it as evidence in a court case against the perpetrator.

We also had a camera in the lounge, kitchen and hall so we knew she was safe at home alone. I reckon these cameras kept her living at home for a coup,Ed of extra years before she went into a care home at the start of the first lock down.

 

[nita]

I think the post about the "disembodied voice" is correct. I had a video baby monitor while my mother was sleeping downstairs and I was upstairs. If she called out in the night, I spoke to her over it but I could see her looking confused and didn't respond to what I was saying. I abandoned the idea of a baby monitor and just went down in the night anyway.

 

[deedeetee]

Thanks for the replies, I'm sorry I haven't been back much since. My mother-in-law's attempt to leave the house poorly dressed seems to stopped, once she had a good dose of antibiotics. We have a device called a memo minder, which plays a recorded message when it senses movement. It does need switching on and off by the carers, it's not perfect, but it gives some solace.
We know she pays attention to it, as when she recently decided to go shopping very early, she knew to turn it off, so as not to disturb her husband...
Obviously with dementia, once we find a solution to one thing, another dozen concerns come up... We will persevere!

 

[deedeetee]

Thanks for the tip on memo minder. It looks like a good solution.

The features that want to add is that it only is active during certain times and that can let me know when grandad has been deterred (or not) by it.

That's what we wanted to, but that device doesn't exist. It's frustrating that the on off switch also switches it to record the message mode, so we often have to re-record the message when the carers have been too heavy handed with the switch.

 

[MartinWL]

My mother in law has just started leaving her home during the night, hopefully this is a UTI and not progression of her dementia. She lives with my father-in-law, but he also has dementia and is not a reliable source of support.
There is a call alarm system in place, with a door sensor; however by the time the call has connected to the call centre, my mum in law has left the house, and my father in law is left in a panic and so the police are called.
What we need is a device that can play a message from one of us that tells her not to go out. But, we need it to only work within set time limits (otherwise she will just acclimatise to the sound, she has a clock that plays different bird song on the hour, which she believes is a bird that is trapped in the chimney, that sings to her every hour...)
All the sensors we've found are battery operated and without the option to set a time limit. We cannot trust either of them to be able to set one up every night, nor can we ask the carers to do this, as the last care call is too early, as it's to support with preparing their main meal. Everything we've found seems to be directed to adults who have carers living with them, but that's not supportable in my in-law's situation.

Has anyone found a device that would work for us? Ideally, it would be connected to the door sensor, so once the door is opened (between 10pm and 7am), the recording could be played...

It will be complicated. You will need a sound store, a movement detector, and a timeswitch. For notifications to you a CCTV camera outside. Quite an elaborate set up that might be vulnerable to tampering and could be unreliable. As others say she might not heed it. Better might be CCTV that alerts you to movement but be prepared for false alarms when Freddie Fox passes by. Also she might have gone too far before you can speak to her. But CCTV might have other uses such as security so could be worth considering.