My mother is in poor health. She has a bad habit of not properly disconnecting calls after talking on her cordless phone, also she sometimes keeps it in her pocket and the off hook button gets pressed accidentally. She doesn’t hear the obnoxious tone it makes that’s supposed to alert you to the problem.
So I end up having to drive over to her place to make sure that she’s okay because all I get when I call is the fast busy signal. She won’t use her cellphone and probably wouldn’t hear it anyway.
I’m thinking that the answer would be a device that makes a loud alarm noise when it detects that obnoxious off hook sound, or maybe simply amplifies that sound. Presumably it would connect either between the base set and the wall, or plug into a spare jack on the same line. It needs to be loud and audible through 3 rooms, audible over a loud TV, and loud enough to wake her up if she’s fallen asleep. She doesn’t suffer from dementia so she’d know enough to hang it up when alerted.
She has phone service through the cable company (Comcast) so the device has to work with that service.
That may be the answer if it works with her phone service. I wish it was plug in rather than battery powered because she may not bother with checking the batteries.
Okay. I found a customer review on Amazon that says it works with their Comcast cable service, and another review that says it has a low battery alarm. So it looks like that’s the answer.
If she’s having difficulty hearing the alarm, consider installing some kind of visual alarm. There are devices that will set your phone to have a flashing light go off rather than a buzzer. Your mother might notice that better.
The real answer would be a cordless handset that automatically hangs up when it’s not in use. There are some phones that do that but they lack other features that she likes.
She doesn’t hear it because it’s in her pocket on her clothing or in a cloth pocket hanging on her walker. Both of those muffle the sound. Plus, the TV is on. Her hearing isn’t really a problem.
Obviously part of the problem is that she’s not as attentive as she should be. This has happened numerous times and we’ve repeatedly reminded her to make sure it’s hung up. Of course if it’s accidentally placed “off hook” (there’s no real hook these days) then it’s not a matter of remembering to hang it up.
She’s always been confused about technology. That’s not a matter of age, she’s been that way my whole life. Consumer electroniccs just don’t come naturally to her. I was surprised, and pleased, when she learned how to use her cellphone. Of course, that hangs up automatically.
You might consider becoming friends with a next-door neighbor of hers, so that you could call them and ask them to step nextdoor and check on her. That might save you aome driving trips. Also, at her age, it’s probably a good idea to have friendly relations with a nearby neighbor.
I’m very friendly with the neighbors, but they work all day. I live close enough that I’m closer than anyone else who’s available. Unless I can find a telecommute job, when I start back to work then the situation will be different.
