Abstract
Dementia is a progressive syndrome and the risk for a dementing disease increases by age. According to several studies, people with dementia and their caregivers have a risk of social isolation. The telephone is the most commonly used communication technology, but people with dementia often have problems using an ordinary telephone. The purpose of this study is to get descriptive information on 1) the role of telephones in the everyday life communication of people with dementia and of their family caregivers and 2) whether an easy-to-use telephone is useful for them. Six people with dementia and their spouses tested a simple-to-use telephone for two months; they were interviewed four times and they filled in a questionnaire with six open-ended questions focusing on the use of the test telephone. The telephone was a central link to the outside world for both the people with dementia and their caregivers. It had several functions such as getting social support and stimulation, increasing safety and acting as a reminder. The test telephone eased finding numbers and dialling them, and in some cases it helped the person to remember who called and what was discussed. Most of the problems that the people with dementia had with phone use in general did not disappear with the use of the new phone. In most cases it did not help the person to remember whom he called and when. When the functions of technologies used in dementia care have been studied, nine functions have been mentioned: reminders, stimulation and relaxation, compensation, behaviour management, safety, surveillance, control assistance for relatives and service co-ordination. According to our study, telephone use falls under most of these functions.