Helpful Gadgets and Useful Gizmos
We have scoured the internet looking for the most useful gadgets and gizmos that we could find for those with Alzheimer’s, Dementia and their Caregivers. We will continue to add items as we find them.
ALZzz App for Android
ALZzz Phone / Dialer tool: Reduces telephone interruptions from loved ones with memory loss, without ignoring urgent needs or causing a sense of abandonment. This app increases quiet time for caregivers by reducing phone call interruptions during sleep, business meetings, family dinners etc. Caregivers can schedule times where phone calls from a loved one are registered, but do not ring through, unless the call is urgent. Messages from caregivers can be easily recorded, to alert loved ones with memory loss, that you are asleep, in a business meeting etc. After hearing your message, and being reminded of the time of day, a bypass key allows a loved one to force a ring-through. This way, urgent needs can always be met.
Application Highlights Include:
- Prerecorded voice messages
- Record your own voice messages
- Automatic scheduling
- Emergency bypass key
Other Helpful Devices
Cameras – Home cameras and monitors can help keep check on your loved one if you are away. Ring doorbell video can see if your loved one has left the home and alert you if they have. Remember to allow your loved one as much privacy as you can.
GPS Tracking Watch – Tracks your loved one within a few steps of their location. If a loved one is known to wander or easily gets lost while driving you can help locate them quickly.
MedicAlert® + Safe Return® – an alliance created between the Alzheimer’s Association and the MedicAlert Foundation to help find loved ones who have wandered. When a person with dementia wanders or becomes lost, one call immediately activates a community support network to help reunite the lost person with his or her caregiver. Once a person is found, a citizen or law enforcement official calls the toll-free 24-hour emergency response number on the identification product and the individual’s caregiver is contacted. The nearest Alzheimer’s Association office provides support during search and rescue efforts. In addition, should medical attention be required, access to a personal health record is immediately available.
Air Tag – Another GPS type system that can be tracked on your Iphone. These can be placed or attached to seemingly anything (cars, keys, wallets, etc.)
Voice Assistants – Devices like these are handy to help make lists, set reminders, buy groceries in some cities, make phone calls and keep an eye on your loved one with video assistance.
Our recommendations for brain stimulating technology include, but are not limited to:
Luminosity – a leading brain training program, brought to you by Lumos Labs, Inc. Lumosity’s web and mobile games are designed by scientists to challenge core cognitive abilities. Lumosity’s scientists take neuropsychological and cognitive research tasks, or design new ones, and work with game designers to transform them into 50+ cognitive games. Designed to be both fun and adaptively challenging, Lumosity’s training program is accessible to people of all ages — helping them stay challenged to the full extent of their abilities.
Other – Many online brain games such as boatload puzzles, web sudoku, lexulous, and strategy type games can challenge the mind and help strengthen cognitive reserve. Keep from placing grandma or grandpa in front of an Xbox and tell them to have fun. They need games that will challenge the brain. Games that help young children to learn will help older adults to practice those skills. Choose according to the loved ones mentally comparable age. It would not be appropriate for Grandpa with dementia to be playing Call of Duty when his brain may be loosing the ability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. It could also cause flashbacks, if he himself served in Vietnam or any of the armed services.