Any recommendations for an alarm clock that I can put in my dad's assisted living room, and that I can change the time and alarm setting, and then he doesnt need to do anything? With dementia he has lost ability to remember how to change the settings.
2 months ago my DH was absolutely obsessed with his bedside clock. He insisted everyday that I check it to make sure it was keeping the right time. He would wake in the night and fiddle with it endlessly. I was worried that the lighted numbers were keeping him awake or maybe his struggle to understand them was upsetting his sleep.
When I determined that he no longer understood the sequence of numbers or what a.m. and p.m. meant I suggested that he really didn’t need the clock anymore and I would give him a wake up call instead. You would have thought I was asking him to give up his left kidney!
About a month ago he stopped obsessing about the clock.
A week ago I took the clock out of his room. I don’t think he’s noticed it’s gone. Unfortunately his sleep hasn’t improved without it. Darn.
For the last couple of days he has been bringing his pill containers to me several times a day to make sure he’s taken the pills for the correct day of the week. Onward to the next obsession I guess.
I suspect these behaviors in our loved ones might be their last ditch efforts to hold onto things that are slipping away from them. They are exasperating (for us) when they are happening but it’s kind of sad when they no longer are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pqfffCAtHU
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8pysKSvzei/
Or has he given up ?
I hope you didn’t bring up the subject at all.
If he forgot about it don’t bring it up . And don’t move the clock . If he’s quiet about it , leave it there .,
If he’s not complaining about a clock anymore it’s HIS money well spent and a win !!!
My mother drove me crazy about her microwave from home and TV dinners . I cut the cord and brought the microwave in , knowing she would never use it .
Since I cut the cord it could not be used .
She had TV dinners in her little dorm fridge/freezer as well that she never took out . But I would not dare remove these things from the room . She would have noticed .
It just made her feel better having these things “ in case she didn’t like the meals”
in AL .
If he asks about bills , bank accounts .
“ Sorry Dad , next time “
He’s far enough along now , you start fibbing .
Realizing this may not be a solution as this man tends to find an issue with everything , it may be worth a try anyway . Can’t make it any worse. This man takes the cake for sure . Few of the usual tactics work with this man . He’s Teflon against Teepa . He needs to realize on his own he can’t do these things. It may take a new clock to prove it to him . But I would only try one and then it’s done if this doesn’t work . Then Dad gets told this is the best there is .
as far as breakfast - forget it - he skips it and does not let the staff even wake him up for it. He wants an alarm to make sure to not be late for lunch, which is his breakfast!
So there is one alarm clock I have set for 10AM
what I have done is bought a 2nd cheap alarm clock, that he can try to set for a different time if he does not want the 10AM wake up. Since he cant change the first one very well that is set for 10AM, not sure how he is going to do with trying to change this second one.... but we will see. At least it was really cheap in Target.
Since your Dad is living in Assisted Living, the Staff will make sure he is awake for breakfast.
And you can also use it to communicate with him.
I have no experience to say any are good or bad . Maybe others will .