Phone for Elderly Relative

[Anonymous]

We have an iPhone 13 we want to give for an elderly relative to use just to call and text family, no more. They are at the beginning stages of dementia (in assisted living still, own apartment at this point and). They aren’t too bad yet— just repeat questions and such — but what they do try to do are things like call the bank or ss office to get information and drive the employees crazy, keeping them on for a long time. They had a phone a while back that broke, and has been using a land line at the assisted living office to make these calls and calls to us.

What kind of plan do I ask for? How do I put limits on the way the phones are used (eg, they don’t need internet access, etc.)

[Anonymous]

No, you need a phone specially made for impulsive old people with poor eyesight, with preloaded numbers and big buttons, so that they don't start calling banks and stranger and are protected from scam calls.

[Anonymous]

The GABB phone is used with tweens. No internet, just texting and calls, but numbers are small.There are flip phones with cheap plans and big numbers-the Jitterbug, but very hard to text.

[Anonymous]

Can you look into setting up their phone with parental controls? I set limits on the apps and contacts on my child’s phone using screen time. My child can only call people on their contact list. However I agree with the previous poster that an IPhone may be a lot for someone who hasn’t used one before. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/set-up-parental-controls-iph00ba7d632/ios

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, you need a phone specially made for impulsive old people with poor eyesight, with preloaded numbers and big buttons, so that they don't start calling banks and stranger and are protected from scam calls.

This. It’s basically my job to keep my dad from talking to scammers. I need to get rid of his iPhone. It’s amazing how many people he will give personal info to just because they call them.
My mom has early dementia and is totally unable to text. Has no clue the difference from email/text.

[Anonymous]

Can you give specific phones? I looked online and there are a lot, some that work only with their own plans.

Don’t want to get scammed myself

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you give specific phones? I looked online and there are a lot, some that work only with their own plans.

Don’t want to get scammed myself

This is a good one and is unlocked. It’s very simple to use and the caregiver app allows you to set up and make changes easily, so you don’t have to be there. They have pretty responsive customer service as well.

[Anonymous]

https://www.razmobility.com/solutions/memory-cellphone/?srsltid=AfmBOoqS8mc7Er1FlBpN_Xf9VMIrIUXa0dM-lhMuskxTaT72EMwcakOM65s

Oops. The link^

[Anonymous]

NP here. We also got our moderate stage dementia father a Raz phone. There's no texting or internet capabilities; it can received video calls, but can't make them, IIRC.

My mom, sister, and I are all able to be listed as caregivers in the Raz app and can allow/block contacts, etc.

I'd say the negatives are that it's not quite as simple to set up as they make it out to be and you have to have a network provider for the phone. The one my sister chose (I think the one Raz suggested) was double billing her for a while but it's sorted out now.

[Anonymous]

If your relative has wifi and the rest of you have iPhones you could set it up to call/text using wifi and turn off the cellular service so he can’t make/receive other calls.