My mother is 80 and lives alone, 90 mins drive from us. Several times recently she has not quite replaced the telephone receiver after a call, or nearby clutter has slipped and knocked the handset partly off the telephone cradle. That results in the telephone giving an engaged tone if called. This situation can carry on for some days, meaning we can't contact her by phone to check she's OK. 

A few times we have asked her neighbours to go round to check all is well & help her replace the phone, but we don't want to use up more of their goodwill than we can help on this.  I'm not sure mum has been able to understand the cause of the problem - she says that a neighbour came round to see if her phone was working OK, but there is clearly nothing wrong with it (which of course there isn't once it is back on the hook properly!)

Any suggestions? 

Hi,

I'm not sure whether there is a solution to this specific problem, but I'm including a link to Tunstall's website.  They offer lots of Telecare products that may be of some help to you?

http://www.tunstall.co.uk

Thanks for the link, Parly!

I think we may have discovered the #1 cause of this, having been able to visit yesterday at a time the phone was off the hook. It was a problem of Mum replacing the receiver upside down. Mum's handset is one really meant for a wall mounting, but she had it flat on the table, making it easy to put it down with the earpiece where the mouthpiece should be.The phone then looks like it is back on the hook OK, but the receiver doesn't push down the switch correctly. 

Anyway, I bought mum a "Big Button" handset from BT ,& am hopeful this will be easier to use. The receiver is chunky & asymmetrical & should only go into the cradle the right way round. Nice design for the elderly generally, that handset - big buttons so you can dial without glasses on, 3 big buttons to speed-dial important or emergency numbers, & a flashing light to indicate messages are there on the 1571 service. Anyway, fingers crossed, this might keep mum more contactable.

I spoke too soon - the line's been engaged since yesterday. Looks like there is more than one way that this can go wrong; perhaps another of the extensions is off the hook now. <sigh>.

My Mum has a similar problem, either leaving the handset of an ordinary telephone not quite in the right position in its cradle, or forgetting to push the "hang up" button on  a cordless one.

I can think of two solutions, but have not yet got myself to implement either:

1) a quick, dirty and possibly a tad expensive solution is to have a mobile phone somewhere in her home, that will not be used for talking, just as a "remote ringer" to alert your/my mother that the regular phone needs to be put in order. We would need to take care that the battery of this mobile phone does not run flat; perhaps we can leave the charger permanently connected, or plugged into a programmable time switch that will turn it on once a week for a few hours.

My Mum recently got a mobile she can actually use (another area where modern technology leaves the elderly out in the cold), so perhaps the problem will go away.

2) A more elegant and effective solution is to use an automatic device connected to the telephone line, that will beep or ring loudly if the phone is left open for longer than, say, 45 minutes. Ideally, the device should detect the presence of voice in the line and stay calm if Mum is talking (no matter how long), and only raise alarm if the phone is open with no conversation going on.

The problem with solution 2) is that I have yet to find such a device anywhere on the global market, or find the time to build one myself. I don't even know what it would be called, so it is difficult to run a web search. If and when I do build it, it will be illegal to connect it to the telephone line because it will not be homologated, but I have no qualms about that. Better be judged by twelve than carried by six.

 

Hope this helps,

Leszek

Leszek - thanks, those are good ideas.

Re the second one (a device to sound an alarm if the phone is left off the hook) I did come across a gadget on the US market called the Fone Sitter (e.g. http://www.commandcommunications.com/store/index.php?productID=21 ) which does just that. Whether it could be purchased from the UK and would work on a UK phone, I have no idea.

My other concern (which has so far stopped me just buying one & trying it to see) is how Mum is likely to react to an alarm going off. Whether she would remember that this means the phone is of the hook (and be able to do something abotu the problem) or whether she would not know what to do is a bit unpredictable nowadays. She was recently thrown completely by her carbon monoxide detector making a noise and was dealing with the situation by ignoring it (it turned out just to be a faulty detector signalling its failure, fortunately).

Mobile phone idea sounds promising (again, might fail because Mum can't remember what to do when the mobile rings - but there are so main points of failure in just about everything Mum does these days, nothing can be guarenteed). On a good day, however, she might manage to answer the mobile, (a) enabling me to speak to her and (b) enabling me to talk her though trying to find which phone is off the hook. Or to remember that she needs to check her landlines.
I've just been looking at some mobiles designed specifically for the elderly http://www.easytousemobiles.com/shop/page/26 and wondering whether she would cope with one, at least as a backup system for incoming calls. Possibly it would be good if the device didn't look too much like a conventional mobile (conventional mobiles might be something Mum has dismissed as too complex to cope with - as you say, the manufacturers have hardly done a good job of serving the elderly customer).

Did you get a special model of mobile for your Mum, and how is that going?

Thanks again (and I love the "better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6" - not heard that before!)

Just come across this discussion whilst trying to find a similar solution. I have just l hour ago! had same problem both my sister and I live a long way from Dad and the phone had been engaged for a long time. I had spoke earlier but my line was clear. He has a personal alarm when I arranged it I was told should there be a problem in contacting him they would 'call' him through the intercom. .....which apparantly ONLY applies if the phone is working has power and is on the hook properly. The outcome was they called the neighbours ..which we were trying to avoid, as it was quite later for them, and got Dad to put phone back properly. I now need to establish if he presses his alarm and the phone is out of action for whatever reason....will the alarm work??? More later .

Short of a huge flashing light or a klaxton (sp) not sure what the answer is. Actually it is possible, if a helpful phone operator is on duty for them to check if someone is using the line, if not it should have an alarm type sound through it...but its not very loud.

Quote
Mum's handset is one really meant for a wall mounting, but she had it flat on the table, making it easy to put it down with the earpiece where the mouthpiece should be.The phone then looks like it is back on the hook OK, but the receiver doesn't push down the switch correctly.

Hi Crispy
You may by now have solved the problem but if not, have you considered wall mounting the base over a table or some such which would catch the phone if it is note returned correctly.
Before fitting, you will of course need to reverse the small plastic insert which provides a positive hook for the receiver. Attempting to replace the receiver upside down will be more unlikely as the connecting cord will not be underneath and may be seen as incorrect