My husband was diagnosed with M.S with some cognitive decline. He’s having trouble using his IPhone. He’s not very technically minded but I believe was fine in the days before smart phones with his Nokia. He wants to be able to use a smart phone so I was wondering if anyone can recommend a smart phone that’s easy to use for someone with cognitive decline.
We haven’t had any follow up since the diagnosis in September and only just been referred to a MS nurse so we’ve had no discussions or support on the cognitive side of things.
Welcome Jules,
I hope you and your husband are as well as can be.
I did a bit of Googling and found a company & product called Doro.
I have taken a closer look now and it seems like a slightly less sophisticated phone with a quick alarm button for older users: if this is not any good for you, I am sorry, lets hope the MS nurse can suggest something suitable.
I wont put a link here because the moderators might think it is advertising.
I hope you can find something that works for you. Hopefully the MS nurse will have access to more info and experience.
Good luck
Mick
Bought a Doro phone for my mother (in her 90s) when she moved into a nursing home. Her problem was physical and was used to a conventional landline phone.
To be honest we did not find a workable solution. One we had button based.
Touch screens did not responding to her touch so we did not go down that route.
If he wants internet functionality, he might find a tablet more useful with a simple phone for talking to people. I used a fire tablet, simple phone and laptop but ended up with a smart phone as easier to switch between applications and work on a single device.
I suggest you take a step back and think what he wants to do and what is the best way to achieve it.
Might be worth investigating Alexa type interface but that was more complex than expected when we tried out some LAN controlled plugs that needed to be on the same subnetwork as Alexa but that was not possible! Technology is great (when it works).
We bought very simple mobile phone from Argos for my Mum when she went to hospital during lockdown 1. Programmed my Dad’s number onto a great big SOS button - cognitively about as much as she could cope with. £12 iirc.
Thanks I identified one with four buttons for different numbers, but my sister wanted more so set up the ordinary phone to offer more when a button was held in. But this was not possible because of my mothers lack of dexterity. Will look as again when normal visiting returns. After a few years there are less people to call.
I find Android phones much easier than I phones. I bought a new one a few months ago that has Android 11. This seems more user friendly than Android 7 which my old one had. My work phone is an I phone XR which I find even more user unfriendly than the older Iphone I had.
Maybe a careful set up of an Android 11 one could make it simple enough for your husband.
My new phone is Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 pro (which I bought for the good cameras), but Android 11 should be very similar between phones of different brands, so I’ll just focus on the Android 11 features, or more general issues. My phone is a big phone so easier to see, and has a really clear screen, so size and screen quality may be a factor to consider. I spent a long time setting it up to make it user friendly for my purposes.
I chose a theme that was pretty simple - plain almost black background and clear icons. There are also themes specifically for older people:
The phone has a button on the side to fully switch off the phone. (I hate the newer Iphones (like my work one) that mean you can’t switch it off easily - actually have to go into settings.) It always has at the bottom a back button, a return to first page button, and a show all open apps button that has a simple x to click to close them all. Unlike the Iphone which requires dragging a finger slowly down the screen and likes to hide its buttons. Hovering over where buttons might be is no good for people with cognitive difficulties!