OT: Telephone ringers for the hearing impaired?

[Chris Hogg]

We have one of these,

mainly as the telephone lives in a room that had to have the door closed at night to keep the cat out of it, and we could expect calls at anytime during the night from my elderly and frail Mum when she fell out of bed and couldn't get back in again!

It's quite loud, but whether loud enough for what you want, who knows? It plugs into an ordinary phone socket, and in turn has a socket that you plug the phone itself into, and a little flashing light. A REN of

1.0 it says. If your Mum has several phone sockets around the house, she could have one in each.

But it's not cheap; I'm sure we didn't pay that much.

[T i m]

It was about hearing from those people had personal experience of (themselves or elderly family members etc) I was after (but thanks). ;-)

Mum did have a small extension ringer plugged into the main socket in the hall but I think it got cleared away when she had the hall decorated etc. I'm not sure it would help these days (when her hearing aids are out).

The thing is, my sister get's concerned if she rings Mum and there is no reply, cause we are local, we get the call to 'pop round to make sure she's ok' (which we generally do, so far to find her sitting in the garden drinking tea or over the shops etc).

The Mrs suggested Mum phoned sister every day, as soon as she got up / whatever but whilst that shows she's ok once a day, something could happen directly after she puts the phone down ...

One of us (that are this end) often pops in at least once a day.

So I think just a loud ringer of some sort might prevent most of the false alarms we end up having to respond to. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Bob Eager]

I fitted one of those so that I can hear the phone when in the garden.

[Mark]

sorry not read all the thread but you can get a one from BT fro free

A BT ToneCaller makes it easier to know when your phone?s ringing, with an extra sound alert to let you know you?ve got a call. If you?re a BT home customer and can?t hear the phone ring due to a hearing loss, we can supply a ToneCaller, free of charge, with a socket doubler for easy self installation next to the phone. To order, call

0800 800 150

[soup]

Sorry had to be done.

[T i m]

Yes Alan, they are all on 'Max' and a ringtone that was the most noticeable to Mum.

If one of the handsets is in the room (or nearby) and not much else going on that is making a noise (like the TV or a lot of talking),

*and* she has her hearing aids in then she can generally hear the phone(s) ring ok. Strangely she hears them better on 'Loudspeaker' when the sound is coming out of the back of the handset.

I bought the phones for her (BT summat) because they had a good rep for being fairly loud and because they had induction loop to make them hearing aid compatible. She recently had both of the aids replaced and looking at the info she was given with them, they were not set-up for induction loop. Short of going with her to the audiologists myself and discussing that subject, I'm not sure what else I can do?

That said, I don't think the clinic she normally attends *can* do the programming but our main hospital can.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Understood.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

That sounds ideal then. ;-)

She lives in a semi and if we put the ringer in the hall it will be furthest away from the co-joined house.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Ok thanks ...

Oh dear. I had to help someone lift their husband back in his chair the other day for similar reasons.

If it is even a couple of times louder than the cordless handsets then it should be fine.

The only thing that worries be about those loud ringers that have a built in plug is that it might then restrict where you can plug it in. Like the socket in Mums hall is on a windowsill so the plug can't be too high up the unit or it won't fit in (mini surface mount socket).

Ok, thanks.

Yes, or maybe a couple at least (one upstairs and one down in central points).

I think I've seen them on eBay for a bit less but even at the price posted it would be worth if it saves us just one 'false alarm'. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

I guess if there was some sort of wireless system that would allow her to have a battery powered beacon in each room then that could also work. One in a central location probably wouldn't.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Thanks for that Terry / Peter.

Yes, I'm sure the whole street would hear that, even if it was indoors! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[charles]

get a phone socket extension lead.

[T i m]

A mate had one on his commercial tomato nursery and you could hear it from anywhere within the house or even the road down the long drive. ;-)

I think I might start off with a basic plug-in ringer and go from there.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

I remember that and as you say, classic.

Not sure Mum would approve though. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Ok thanks. Given she's been with BT for a long time now if there is anything available she should be given it. ;-)

If you mean the emergency call button thing she has one of those (that she pays for)?

Luckily, she's still generally fit and self sufficient (at 87) and so only has friends and family popping in. We did get a request to run one of her friends home yesterday and she's 102 as Mum didn't want her walking home on her own in the dark! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

The main BT line comes in by the front door and then goes upstairs to the front bedroom (guest room) and to the rear dining room, so we do have some options.

I think the DECT phones were mainly so that they could have phones where there weren't sockets and that's still the case.

When I first lived there there was the one phone in the hall, as was probably std for the time. ;-)

As it happens, there is power by all 3 sockets so that one wouldn't be a dealbrealker.

Interesting.

That last one might be good if I could sort some sort of wireless system (so she can have the light where they would be seen best).

And that's another interesting solution, especially if she is concerned about 'annoying the neighbours' with any loud ringers.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Yes, I remember it well. ;-)

It's a shame when they lose their hearing as you can see how it can make them more isolated. Many a time she will take a call, struggle to hear or understand whoever is on the other end and just thrust it at one of us to deal with. ;-)

And you can often see her 'computing' to make sense of the bits of information she has heard (and it's sometimes the bits you didn't intend her hearing!). ;-(

Apparently, I've got a 'funny voice' so she can't understand me as easily as she can ladies with their generally higher pitched voices.

So, I generally leave all the talking to them. ;-)

Considering she's never worked in an office or used a typewriter she's pretty good typing stuff to us on Skype on her iPad. She prefers typing to the video chat, again because of her hearing.

Cheers, T i m

[Bob Eager]

I should say that, as we do get on with our neighbours, it is only enabled when necessary (dial *61 on any phone in the house).

And it is disabled every evening at 8 p.m. via a cron job.

[Dave Liquorice]

Bell 50e is the less industrial version.

I think the Bell 50E has two slightly differently tuned gongs rather than the single gong of Bell 80D. Proper gongs are better for the hard of hearing than monotonic "tone callers" as they produce a much wider range of frequencies.

[Bob Eager]

Actually, the 80D *does* have two gongs. They are concentric, and the clapper works between them.