The idea behind this rather epic practical tip came from my Tiny Friend.  Tiny Friend looked after a relative for a long time and I knew about her tip a while ago but it’s only recently become relevant.

When Dad’s breathing is bad, getting to the phone, or just making a phone call can take more puff than his lungs can manage.  He mostly communicates via Facebook Messenger and email these days, but none of these options would necessarily work in an emergency.

We had talked about one of those alarms you can press that call relatives /contact an operator / call 999 when activated but that was a firn ‘no’ from Dad every time.

Then I remembered Tiny Friend’s solution.  She had used Ring door bells at her relatives house.  In her case they were to monitor via video to make sure all was ok, but I figured it could be used as an alarm for Dad.

So now Dad has a mobile Ring doorbell.  It’s connected to my and both my sisters phones so that should he need us, he just needs to press it once and we’ll all get alerted at the same time, giving a much better chance that one of us will be able to connect with Dad immediately and get him the support that he needs.  We can even see him as we talk to him so he can answer questions with head shakes and nods if talking puff has disappeared, as it sometimes does.

If I look at the app when the bell hasn’t been rung it’s mostly just views of ceilings as Dad puts Ringo down in different rooms, but that in itself is quite a reassuring sort of thing to see.

(It’s also worth noting that if you don’t need to record calls etc  – and I’m not sure why you would in this situation- you don’t need a monthly plan with Ring, so it’s a one off £100 cost.  That’s less than the quarterly charge of a more standard alarm).

So thank you, Tiny Friend. For this and for the huge support you always are; it is very much appreciated.

And thank you, Ringo (the door bells name, given to it by Dad). We really appreciate your career change from traditional door bell to support bell. I hope it will be very fulfilling. 🙂