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[Varche]

Another great idea from the varche stable.

Visual audio board for elderly folk that live alone. e.g. two weeks is up , replace the batteries in your hearing aid

How does it work? You (the relative) can programme it to give visual or audio displays to advise the elderly person to do something.

Why not use the telephone, I hear you say? Answer two weeks is up , replace the batteries in your hearing aid.

can also be used to remind olds with short memories. e.g.

Today you are being collected at twop.m. to go to the opticians. Reminder, get dressed you are going to the opticians in 30 minutes .

Do NOT latch the front door otherwise the carers can't get in and you can't hear them as you haven't got your hearing aid in.

Don't forget to empty your electric shaver once a fortnight otherwise it will stop working (oops too late two years later.....)

Product details

Visual display unit large letters for visually impaired, sound alert for message. Perhaps even incorporate a button for message understood. Uses a SIM card or Internet connection.

Bung me a bit of money please when you have made your costs back!

[al brown]

We got the old style version for my grandmother, pen and paper. So she could write her list of things to do so she wouldn't forget.
Didn't work, she would write down, phone grandson ask him to mend fence.
She would then ring me and ask
2 min's later she would ring me again becuse I forgot to ask if it was on her list of things to do and get her to cross it off.
Seems I need some sort of audio or visual reminder too to keep up

[The Sheriff]

The people who would need this type of thing really shouldn't be on their own.

[ted_one]

Most of them are on here

[Varche]

Perhaps. However we have two in our family that are and broadly manage OK.

It is a sad fact that with successive governments of whatever flavour cutting social services budget that more and more old folk will live alone rather than lose their independence and live in a quite frankly ghastly but expensive care home as my uncle did. As medicine keeps improving and keeping folk alive longer and longer where are they going to go and more to the point who is going to pay for it? It is far cheaper(for GB plc -taxpayer) for someone to live at home than it is to go into care.

[al brown]

My grandmother resisted it for a while and stayed in her own home but eventually moved into sheltered housing. She was able to look after her self, just wasn't overly mobile and was signing to remember things. Which, all joking aside, was fine for phone calls, but not so for things like taking medicine.
Having had a mother who was a nurse in care homes and a wife who works as a home carer, I think the sheltered housing is a decent option for many, especially as couples can then stay together.
It may not be there home and it means they have to move but they get to keep a lot more of their independence.

[The Sheriff]

I agree, Al. I think it's kind of a half way solution but, of course, there aren't enough of them either.

[amazonian]

All joking aside Varche, that is a bloody good idea!
Get it on Dragons Den, Old Duncan will probably buy one for himself.