Get CPR certified in 30 minutes at CPR Test Center.
Echo & Alexa Forums

SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

mblxv

SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« on: August 02, 2020, 06:16:57 pm »
Hi Everyone!

I just purchased an Echo Show to put in my mother's room at her Memory Care home. It's been really awful during the pandemic with the entire facility in lockdown and now only 30 minute in person (masked, at 6 feet distance) visits permitted once a week. She's safe but sliding down the dementia curve faster than she might be otherwise due to lack of socialization, contact with family, etc. Her technical skills on a scale of 1 to 5 are about -3 (and were before the memory loss set in; just not her thing -- Shakespeare and Ovid are) so this should be great so long as we can "train"  her to say "Alexa" before she tries to call us. And yes, I've seen the SNL skit a million times.

I think I figured out how to get it programmed so the family members can "drop in" on her and will next try to figure out how we might manage to have three or four of us on a call at once. In the meantime . . .I'd like to ask those who have set these up for their elderly parents what other things we can look forward to doing through the Echo -- music? Movies? Activities? Announcement that High Tea is being served? -- that we can manage from afar for her.

Thank you for your ideas and tips.

Cheers

mblxv

Evans

Re: SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2020, 09:55:58 pm »
Hi there - i have the exact same situation as you and am looking for even more BASIC help.  i just want to be able to drop in on my mom (i'm not even going to try to get her to say "Alexa" and call me") but i'm wondering if i can even do that and how it works.  i bought an Echo Show 5 and she has WIFI at her Assisted Living Facility.  if i set it up on her wifi network will i be able to see her from my Alexa app?  and, even more importantly, would she be able to see me when i drop in?  i have the Ring Camera (which i highly recommend in any sort of senior facility, btw) but it's very confusing to her when i speak to her through the device because she can't see me so it's like some strange, disembodied voice.  sorry i'm answering your question with a question but i would love any help.  thanks in advance!

Re: SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2020, 04:26:24 pm »
there's been several threads about this already.  best bet to read them.   the following is one of them

https://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,2842.msg15552.html#msg15552

Evans

Re: SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2020, 04:55:05 pm »
Renegade600 - it sounds like you are very active and knowledgeable about this.  i followed the thread you sent but it wasn't helpful (i think i'm finding out that i'm almost as limited as my mother!).  do you have any answer to this question:  i just want to be able to drop in on my mom (i'm not even going to try to get her to say "Alexa" and call me") but i'm wondering if i can even do that and how it works.  i bought an Echo Show 5 and she has WIFI at her Assisted Living Facility.  if i set it up on her wifi network will i be able to see her from my Alexa app?  and, even more importantly, would she be able to see me when i drop in?  i have the Ring Camera (which i highly recommend in any sort of senior facility, btw) but it's very confusing to her when i speak to her through the device because she can't see me so it's like some strange, disembodied voice.  sorry i'm answering your question with a question but i would love any help.  thanks in advance!

Re: SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2020, 05:38:33 am »
well you did ask for tips and the link I gave have them and other uses for seniors.   If you have a show and she has a show, you can see each other by dropping in.   You cannot use the alexa app by itself.  You can do conference calls with alexa.  also you can do skype to alexa video calls.   Most of this is beyond what I know.  I just know you can do it.   too much has changed on alexa recently and I really have not been keeping up.   

Wickwart

Re: SOLICITING BEST PRACTICES AND TIPS FOR ECHO SHOW FOR SENIORS
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2020, 09:29:12 am »
Hi there,
I see it's been a couple weeks since this was posted but since I find myself in the same position as you I want to add my 2 cents worth.
My dad is soon to be 92 and we have just moved him to an assisted living apartment in July.  He is mostly blind and his memory is failing him.  Due to reasons beyond our control (and everything is in this covid time) he is either not hanging up his phone properly or the phone cord we sent so they could put his phone next to his easy chair is defective.  The facility will not be convinced to go spend the few minutes it would take to troubleshoot the situation and therefore we have not been in contact for 2 weeks.  Regardless he would be unable to call us and we have to call him...if the phone was working.  We bought an echo show 8 so that we can call or drop in on him and so that if we are able to teach him to call us and his few other friends.  I have been working with the echo for two days finding the settings that will make it as simple as possible.  This is what I have learned and what I am doing.
1) We are changing the wake-up word to "computer".  We are going to tell him it is a computer that will be activated by his voice and he can ask it things and use it to call us and he can answer our calls using his voice.  In reality if we can only "drop in" on him successfully that will be enough.  There is little chance he will remember the name "Alexa" since he has no past experience to draw on but since he worked using a computer that should be still in his memory about what a computer can do.
2)  We discovered that if I have the alexa app on my phone and I put me as a contact with both my cell number and my home landline it will exclusively default to the cell number and will not find the home number.  It will say something like "contact not available" and then will dial the cell number.  However it will ask which number to use for my sister's contact which also has cell and home options.  I believe this is because she does not yet have the app installed.  We'll see on that.  To remedy this I made a separate contact entry for my home line called "our family name" as the first name and "residence" as the last name and I marked it as a home line.  I also put the relationship as daughter.  Now if my dad says "Computer call my daughter" Alexa will respond "which number should I call, H....'s mobile, L...'s mobile or E.... residence home?"  Perfect.  We used the word "residence" because growing up we were required to answer the phone thus: "W.... Residence" and therefore we are again using something already in his memory and he won't have to learn anything new.  It took quite some time to figure out why Alexa would refuse to find the home number but I think it has to do with the app being on my cell phone.  Amazon wants us to use its products exclusively.
3)  I set the echo up to greet him every morning with the date, time, weather and a short happy news item.  I can change what it does as I see what he likes and doesn't like.  I can also change the time it does that if I'm interrupting his breakfast too much ;-)
I hope everyone finds good ways to keep in touch as we continue to be sequestered during this annoying time.  I'm happy my dad is safe but it is very trying, especially without his phone working.  I do get to go visit next week but I live in a different state and my sister who lives closer to him is unable to drive to him due to her own vision problems.
If I find other helpful hints or I need to update anything I've said I'll post again.