We recently (hesitantly) added a landline to our parent's room in memory care. It is a phone for the hard of hearing and conversations are going much, much better. Unfortunately, he occasionally gets his days and nights mixed up and phones people in the middle of the night.
Most of us use cell phones and we can set the phones not to accept calls between certain hours. But his sister has a landline. I've been researching and it looks like she could block his number completely, but not just between certain hours. She's 93, so I don't want to suggest a complicated fix to her- like block the number before going to bed and unblock it in the morning.
Has anyone found a way to block midnight calls from the nursing home resident? The facility suggested taking his phone out of the room but as we can't visit, it is very nice to have him be able to hear us when we call.
This is why I feel phones are not needed in a MC situation. The resident has a tendency of abusing it. Hopefully you have it set that only local calls can be made.
I will suggest that she turn off her ringer at night. If he continues to disturb her sleep, we will have to pull the phone out.
If he knows her number by heart, then yes she'll just have to turn her ringer down at night.
I'm really concerned for all our elderly. Even the ones who are living independently seem to me to be slipping a bit due to the isolation.
I just wanted to know if there were any technological fixes for this problem. Does not seem like there is.
I would suggest an additional phone with the ringer turned off in case she needs to call out when the other phone is disabled
On a related note, here is a thread on safelisting incoming calls for elders:
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=317663&newpost=5314565.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=alzheimers+clock&crid=3QMQXGEWMUAPO&sprefix=alzheimers+clock%2Caps%2C535&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_16
If your dad is cognizant enough still, he will realize it's 1 am in the morning when he's trying to make a phone call and it will wake the person up. If he's past that point, however, the clock won't help. My mother is 93 with moderate dementia; up and down, but still somewhat cognizant on most days. While she insists the clock has been a HUGE help to her, she still asks me what day it is ALL the time.
So who knows, right?
I don't have a solution for you as far as blocking the late night calls, unfortunately. I will say that as much aggravation as my mother's phone causes me, and it causes A LOT (to say the least), I am not willing to remove it from her room until and unless she starts calling 911 like her sister did. The phone is her last remnant of normalcy and her only means of contacting her friends and nieces out of state, along with me and her grandchildren.
Good luck!