My father has dementia and is in memory care. Is there any way to block outgoing 911 calls from his mobile phone?

MartaB, forget a mobile home. Your Dad and I grew up knowing how to use a landline which is simple. Phone rings, you pick up the receiver.... end of call you put down the receiver.

No apps, no charging, no looking the phone when it is missing. Landlines stay put, they don't disappear, and they are always ready to use.

When my Dad was in Independent Living and later in Memory Care, the facility offered landlines for their residents. Everyone had to learn to dial 9 to get an outside line. Eventually those in Memory Care would forget how to dial 9.

If your Dad needs to purchase his own landline phone, you can search on the internet "landline phones for senior citizens". Get the most simple of phones.

If you insist on keeping the cell phone, check out www.razmobility.com and their phone for ALZ and dementia. We are switching our LO to this phone to 1) pay the additional monthly cost to intercept errant 911 calls, 2) control the people she can call, and 3) stop the reducing/shutting off the phone volume that frequently happens with her.

Full disclosure, I am not associated in any way with RAZ Mobility. It just is working for our LO and might be the answer for yours.

hi! :)

how about an iphone?

you put the apps for facetime/whatsapp clearly on the 1st screen. this way your father can call you. (it took me many months to teach my LO how to use whatsapp video - now no problem).

then, the app with the phone icon (the green app) -- move it to another screen somewhere in the back. your father has dementia -- i guess he doesn't know how find apps that are on another screen. (do you see what i mean? you can have many apps on the screen and move the location of some apps to the next screen).

hug!! (unless your father knows how to go to settings, etc., find the phone icon).

I agree with your brothers. My mom was using her phone repeatedly to report emergencies to 911. Such as to report that the trash truck driver stole her dog (her dog had died a year prior); another time to report that she was locked out of her house (she was calling from inside her living room). Not to mention the 99-plus calls to my brother's phone in one day (probably more, the phone stops counting at 99), and over 60 calls per day to my phone. It was apparent that mom couldn't be left alone, or with unsuprvised access to a phone. So she lives with me now 24/7.

I agree with your brothers. We had to take my step mothers cell due to doing something similar. It caused many issues with 911.

He can survive without a cell phone, sometimes we have to do what we have to do.

If he uses the phone for other purposes besides calls/texts, you could cancel the phone plan and just let him use the phone as an internet only device for games, emails, music, etc. I do know a lot of elders haven't ever gotten to the habit of using phones for anything other than calls/texts, and that may be the case with him. Have him use the landline at the facility if he needs to call you or others with whom he wants to be in touch. Some places have landlines in the rooms that allow for local outgoing calls, and others use handsets they give to the residents for outgoing or incoming calls.

I am all for taking the phone. If you do, make sure the person in charge knows. My daughter says when phones go "lost" a report has to be made and they have to search for it only to find a family member took it.

I agree with the brothers. Quite honestly there isn't room in most memory care for seniors with mobile phones. As your sweet Dad has proven, it is bad stuff waiting to happen. To say nothing of scammers who get ahold of him. Just my opinion. He may branch out to speak with fellow residents and watch TV in the communal room without his phone. If it is games he likes there are ways, I would hope (assume) to get him some sort of device that does only that.
Whatever your decision in all this, I wish you good luck. Welcome for Forum!

Phones have to have 911. It’s a federal law.

However, if there’s a landline, it should come up to the 911 dispatcher as the name of the business. SF Generals psych ward was that way, so whenever we saw that we would insist on talking to the nurse.