Social isolation is a common problem for seniors living in their own homes. It is not only a function of decreasing mobility, reduction in driving time( particularly after dark), and scattering of family but with increasing age it is the passing away of longtime friends and family.
Although the use of newer phones can present problems for many seniors, the ubiquitous cell phone with multi-state coverage has connected them to distant family and friends. It is critical that the senior use a cell phone on a regular basis and carry it with them at all times for the sake of safety.
The basic senior cell phone should be the Samsung Jitterbug or a similar product.
The Jitterbug has a large, backlit keypad makeing dialing easy, bright color screen displaying numbers with clarity. Sound is clear with low background noise. No confusing menus. Access all options with simple 'YES' or 'NO' questions. Bluetooth® and caller ID enabled.
The Clarity company offers a wide range of home phones and phone amplifiers for people with hearing impairment. This phone offers a wide variety of simple features to make using it easier, such as only 4 buttons, an easy-to-read display and is twice as loud as normal cell phones. It has a very large back-lit display, is amplified up to 20 decibels, sports a big red button for emergencies, flashing ringer, a strong vibration ring and can be used for text messages. This cell phone is unlocked, which means that most major carrier locations can activate it.
ClearSounds UltraClear Home Amplifying Speakerphone CSC600
It has a 99 name and number phonebook directory and easily stores and dials frequently called numbers. The keypad has easy-to-read big buttons including 5 one-touch speed dials and one large one-touch emergency dial button.
Hearing impaired persons with partial loss of hearing may find that the quality of their hearing varies from day to day, from one situation to another, or not at all. They may also, to a greater or lesser extent, depend on both hearing aids and lip-reading.
Many people with hearing loss have better hearing in the lower frequency ranges (low tones), and cannot hear as well or at all in the higher frequencies. Some people may merely find it difficult to differentiate between words that begin with consonantal sounds such as the fricatives or sibilants, z, or th, or the plosives d, t, b, or p. They may be unable to hear thin, high-pitched or metallic noises, such as birds chirping or singing, clocks ticking, etc. Often, they are able to hear and understand men's voices better than women's.
Others will find their condition much worse if circumstances in their immediate environment affect the way they are able to use their hearing aids, or prevent them from employing their speech reading skills. A room with a high ceiling and a lot of reverberation will affect the sound of a speaker's voice adversely. The position of the listener, too, can make a difference; for example, if only the listener's ineffectual ear is turned towards the speaker, then the listener will have trouble hearing. Difficulties can also arise for the listener trying to lip-read, if the speaker is sitting with his back against the light-source and is in this way obscuring his face.
The speaker's accent; a topic with many potentially unfamiliar words; the softness of his/her voice; a speech impediment; a habit of holding a hand in front of his/her mouth or turning his/her face away at times: all these tendencies cause problems for the hard-of-hearing, especially when they have to rely on lip-reading. Rustling papers and turning pages are the noises that hearing aids pick up first.
Noisy situations are especially difficult, because hearing loss affects not only the ability to hear sounds, but also the ability to localize and filter out background noise.
Some of the assistive devices hearing impaired seniors use:
Seniors can communicate by telephone using Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD). These devices transmit typed text over telephone lines. There are several new Telecommunications Relay Service technologies including IP Relay and captioned telephone technologies. Mobile textphone devices allow simultaneous two way text communication. Videophones and similar video technologies can be used for distance communication using sign language. Telecommunications Relay Services enable a hearing impaired person to communicate over the phone with a hearing person via a human translator. Wireless internet and mobile phone/SMS text messaging. Phone captioning is a service in which a hearing person's speech is captioned by a third party, enabling a hearing impaired person to conduct a conversation with a hearing person over the phone.Other assistive devices include those that use flashing lights to signal events such as a ringing telephone, a doorbell, or a fire alarm. The simplist devices are those that amplify normal sounds such as speaker phones.
Social Media for Seniors.
Most Seniors are uncomfortable with Linkedin, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. They are concerned about their own privacy, reading the "intimate" details of friends and family, how to deal with requests to be "friends", and the cultural differences that are exposed in social media that they prefer to not know about. However, the frequent use of such social media, particularly MySpace and Facebook, can keep them engaged with family and friends and provide practice in using the internet for other tasks. If engaging in social media is desirable for the Senior, the best means of beginning is the posting of family photos on a Facebook album. If the Senior would like to see those photos, then a Facebook account can be set up with maximum privacy settings.
Printing Mailbox "Email" without a computer
It works like this: Your computerless recipient connects the A10 to any standard phone line and subscribes to the Presto service for $12.50 a month. You set up the service over the phone or by Web-accessible computer, specifying the Internet addresses allowed to send e-mail to that account. Presto allows for an unlimited number of addresses, but only those on the list can actually send mail to the specified account, so you won't receive spam. You can also schedule when and how often the A10 should connect to the Presto service for new messages.
Sometimes Seniors receive mail solictations that are unwanted but that they are unable to stop. Sometimes caregivers for seniors want to stop these unwanted mailings. DMAchoice™ is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers' concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA's Mail Preference Service created in 1971.
