My dad has moderate dementia, and cannot operate his TV remote by himself. He is living in a good home, but he doesn't have someone who can change the channel for him or turn it on and off. Is there any sort of TV system that would allow me to control his TV over the internet? Anyone else have this issues?
As far as a "good home" goes - dad received excellent care but there couldn't be an aide there every minute. He could use his call button but he wouldn't do that to change his TV channel - he wanted to do that himself. They always adjusted things for him when they came in which was often, but he still wanted that control. Unfortunately, I never found a very good solution.
Keep us posted, please!
Carol
Its been a great timesaver for me and she's happy. The only thing is setting up the pre-programming in advance, but she has lots of favorites like game shows and old TV westerns she likes to watch so I just pre-program those to automatically play M-F and its al set from that point.
The remote I got her only has On/Off, Mute, Vol up/down, channel up/down. The letters are large and it's a life send. She is so happy she can operate it.
The handyman at the AL helped me program it. It took a little while, but with not too much trouble. He told me that every resident there needed one like it. It's the best $19.99 I have ever spent.
We have friends who made a cardboard device to fit over the many unnecessary buttons to cut down on confusion. The whole thing is taped over the existing remote.
It's a removable remote control, that covers the useless buttons on the remote, simplifying it by exposing only the most basic and frequent buttons (power, volume, guide). It's interesting in that it does not need to be programmed, and it fits right on the cable remote control. And it's hard to lose if it's the glow in the dark model. Worth taking a look into.
I love the day of cable-ready TV when we didn't have to worry about these digital boxes. Getting HR is not worth the trouble it causes with old folks and remotes.
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