My mother-in-law has always been somewhat resistant to new technology. Introducing her to a new TV remote or mobile phone often required detailed instructions and a lot of patience. A few years ago, she suffered a severe stroke, and now she is dealing with dementia, which has made these challenges even more pronounced.
Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to get her comfortable in recent years with using a modern mobile or cordless phone. I have tried various devices, including those with simple red and green buttons for answering and ending calls. However, she often forgets to charge her phones, and they end up dead and covered in dust. When she does remember to charge them, the phone is left charging in her bedroom, far from where she spends most of her time, making it impractical for her to answer calls.
I've even joked about placing my old Telstra “Gold Phone” payphone in the lounge room for her to use. Unfortunately there are no phone sockets in or around the lounge room. Cordless or mobile phones seemed like the only viable options, but they just weren’t working out.
Recently, while she was in an aged care facility for respite, I tried calling her on the bedside phone and to my surprise, she picked it up! It was a simple, corded phone, and it got me re-visiting how I could enhance her ability to communicate with others at home. While this device wouldn’t give her the independence to make calls, it would certainly allow her to receive them more easily.
After some searching, I found a cordless desk phone – the VTech Careline Phone 20750E. It looks like a normal corded phone but connects wirelessly over DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication), meaning I don’t need a phone socket where the device sits. This seemed like the perfect solution.
Given the often high markups associated with assisted living devices, I was pleasantly surprised to find the VTech Careline Phone for a reasonable $55 at my local Officeworks store, although other sellers were offering the same device at much higher prices.
The phone requires a VTech Smart Comms Bridge (an additional $39), which basically works as a DECT base station. Being a tech enthusiast, I tried to use my existing Fritz!Box’s built-in DECT base station, but it took quite a bit of effort modifying and disabling a few features to get it to work reasonably well with the phone. In the end, I decided to use the VTech Smart Comms Bridge for my own sanity and to ensure reliability.
There are a few things I dislike about the product... The phone is capable of using the G.722 high-definition voice protocol, but the VTech Smart Comms Bridge can only connect via an analogue telephone cable, meaning high-definition voice isn’t possible. I was also disappointed to learn that some features (such as the SOS feature) require an additional device to be able to program them.
This journey has taught me a lot about the importance of finding the right tools to support our loved ones, especially as they face significant health challenges. It’s not just about making things simple; it’s about making them accessible and practical for their unique needs.
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