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Hi, everyone.
My mother is new to an assisted living facility. Because of the pandemic, they are now in their rooms almost all of the time, including all meals. She keeps messing up her TV by pressing incorrect buttons (despite my taped instructions on the back of the remote), and the workers at the facility aren’t able to get her TV back to normal.


I’m thinking I need to get a remote with only a few buttons that she CAN’T mess up, but I have not idea which one would be best. It needs to be able to work with Comcast - and it needs to be able to change the channels. Not sure if I need to ask Comcast about this, but thought I’d put it out there to see if anyone else is in the same boat.


Thanks.
Sandy

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Comcast has a voice activated remote
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JoAnn29 Mar 2020
It is expensive to have this. You need the box that has On Demand on it. I have this on my TV but my DH doesn't have it on his.
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At my Moms AL the resident supplied their own cable or Dish network.

I would call Comcast. I have them and they are big about renting everything. They have a monopoly on DVRs, thats why I don't rent one. I got mad because they made it so I could not use my VCR to tape.

There are remotes out there that only have the up and down buttons and volume buttons. To use them though, you may need to unplug the cable and get a good antenna. By the time Mom was in an AL thats all she needed. She was pretty much in the common area during the day. He aides put on Cozi TV for her and she just watched the old shows till time for bed.
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You can cut buttons off of the remote so she can't push the wrong ones.  I haven't done it, but know it can be done by pulling the button up a bit & using a sharp knife.  If you can't do it, a tech can.  Yes, I've had a tech do this before when they were there on a call for something else.  He only cut off 1 button but other problems continued.  All buttons needed to be cut off except channels.. and up/down channel changing, volume, mute, off/on.

Some people have taped off buttons not to be used.  There's a picture of that on this website:
https://seniorplanet.org/7-people-whove-adapted-ingeniously-to-the-modern-world/

I'd get a 2nd remote as a back up in case needed for something more, and keep that hidden away from her.  And hide the tv remote somewhere high in her apartment so she can't see or reach or it will be the next thing messed up and/or mixed up.

They make remotes for elderly, but I don't know if those work or which ones work with Comcast.  Comcast used to have remotes for the elderly, but those still have too many buttons for elderly, especially with dementia.

Hope one of those works for you.  Good luck.
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Comcast provides its own remotes for customers.    800.934.6489   You might want to ask someone on staff at the AL to call and order one, as your mother most likely isn't listed as a customer.   I would have thought that staff would provide a remote. 

I would list the instructions separately, next to an enlarged drawing of the remote, and perhaps color code different functions (such as on/off buttons, channel change buttons, etc.).    Color coding the buttons to comparable instructions might help Mom follow the right procedures.   You might also want to create a little notebook for the instructions as sometimes things like that tend to get lost.
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