27 February 2017

Top apps for the elderly

We’ve compiled an extensive list of apps to help care for your parent and to keep your parent entertained. They are available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Apps featured here cover medical, mobility, reading, hearing, help with shopping, social media, games and hobbies.

Medical and Mobility Apps

1. Clock Face Test/ iPhone and iPad/Free. This app is a cognitive test to evaluate for dementia. Users are asked to drag numbers to the appropriate place on the clock and the app assesses their performance

2. Communication Tool/ iPhone/Free. This app has over 500 pictures, plus you can download your own personal ones, to help someone with dementia to communicate more easily, as well as allowing for reminiscence exercises, memory prompts and other mental exercises

3. Apps to signal for help if your parent falls/Fall Detector. Spantec Fall Detector is a specialized application to alert for falls and extended periods of inactivity. Good for peace of mind.

4. Dealing with depression: Geriatric Depression Scale/Free. Asks recipients 15 questions and gives an analysis of their possible depression from the results

5. Blood PressureiBP /£0.69. Needs a separate monitor, but will track and analyse blood pressure measurements over time

6. Pill Reminder Pro, 69p. Once you enter the name of the pill, how many to take and when, the app will remind your parent to take the right pills at the right time with a message

7. Mobility Assessment Tool/IPhone/£0.69. Series of tests allowing the user to assess their own perceptions of how mobile they really are

8. Pocket Physio/ FREE. Care UK’s Pocket Physio app is an easy to use guide to the physiotherapy exercises you need to do to prepare for, and recover from, hip or knee replacement surgery as well as foot and hand surgery.

Help with reading and hearing

1. Dragon Dictation, FREE.This app lets your parent dictate text and then send it as an email message. They can also dictate reminders to themselves and post on Facebook and Twitter

2. Read2Go, £13.99. This is an e-book reader which allows people to browse, search and download books and provides a choice of font size and settings. Recommended by RNIB

3. VizWiz/FREE. VizWiz helps partially sighted users to take photos with their phone, ask questions and get spoken answers.

Help with shopping

1. Vouchercloud/FREE. This app gives your parent discount vouchers for local restaurants, cinemas and other high street shops offering discount.

2. Idealo/FREE This great app lets you scan the barcode on a product and search for the cheapest place to buy it.

3. WHICH? Gives advice on your consumer rights, from returning items to what to do with faulty goods. Here are some great sample letters to help you complain

Social media

This is such a vital way to combat isolation and loneliness and allow families to keep in touch.

1. SKYPE/Free.Skype is just fantastic to allow older people to keep in touch with family and friends. Just push a button and call with video as well, so it’s like having a face-to-face conversation

2. TWITTER/FREE. Twitter is quick and easy to use, and a great way to keep in touch

3. FACEBOOK /FREE. Like Twitter, great for sharing news and views with photos of what the family have been getting up to

Games

1. IMUTT- FREE. Animals are proven to be great companions for older people, but not every older perosn is able to keep one. This game from the Dogs Trust allows users to feed, play with and walk with a pretend dog . Perfect and no need to walk in bad weather!

2. REAL RACING 2 HD £4.99. An exciting driving game, with great graphics, so your parent can feel like a real rally driver

3. ANGRY BIRDS RIO HD £1.99. A great game, once tried, always addicted!

4. SCRABBLE £4.99. The Scrabble app has its own with multi-player capability and is great for playing family and friends at a distance

Entertainment

1. BBC iPlayer/FREE. iPlayer allows your parent to watch TV programmes they may have missed and watch them whenever they want to. An amazing app

2. KINDLE/FREE Read a vast collection of ebooks, on iPad, iPhone and Android, as well as Kindle and helpfully, it syncs across all apps

3. INSTAPAPER /£2.99 Catch up TV for newspapers. Allows you to save articles and read them later

Hobbies

1.PAINTERLY £1.49 Allows your parent to paint with more than 60 virtual brushes, as well as importing photos and then painting them

2, 123D SCULPT Your parent can mould virtual clay with this extraordinary creative app

READ OUR TOP APPS FOR DEMENTIA

If there are any apps you’d like to recommend, do let us know on SHARE, our forum.

Watch our helpful video about how to get the elderly on-line

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Happy people live longer | My Ageing Parent says:

June 14th, 2012 at 2:02 pm (#)

[…] older people access to games, shopping, Skype, reading and the internet and there are so many great apps they can use. iPods can be pre-loaded with audiobooks and music for your ageing parent to enjoy. […]