An online community dedicated to helping senior caregivers.

Question: I’m a wife/sometimes caregiver. My husband has to use a wheelchair or walker. I have medium to severe hearing loss. When sleeping I don’t wake up when my husband calls me. When my daughter is not home, we pay for an overnight caregiver. Can you refer me to a company/device/watch/cowbell for suggestions?

Answer: It can be a real challenge to alert you to important sounds when you are hard of hearing and sleeping. While that might allow you to have a consistent night’s sleep, you might also miss something like an alarm, the doorbell or the phone. In this case you might even miss your loved one trying to get your attention. 

There are a couple of ways to deal with this issue. If you are in the house with your loved one and want to ensure he can get your attention, consider some simple solutions like a mega phone or a loud bell. A unique solution could be repurposing a wireless flashing doorbell. Instead of putting the doorbell button outside the front door, put it near the bed or chair so it can easily be reached in the night, and put the flashing alarm part next to the one who’s hard of hearing. They come with multiple sounds and levels of volume so you can trial which one you can hear the best.

If hearing any sound is a challenge and you’d also like the functionality of hearing an alarm clock, try a bed shaker alarm. It connects to an alarm clock, and when it rings the bed will vibrate so you can be alerted by feel instead of sound. For those who are hard of hearing and live alone, it’s really important you’re able to be alerted to the doorbell and the smoke alarms for your safety. Check out this bed shaking alarm that would meet those safety needs!

Brandy Archie, OTD, OTR/L, CLIPP, CLVT, received her doctorate in occupational therapy from Creighton University. She is certified in both Living in Place and Low Vision Therapy. Dr. Archie has more than 15 years of experience in home health and elder-focused practice settings. She is currently the founding director of AccessAble Living, a company whose mission is to adapt environments to fit the needs of older adults to keep them living safely in their homes in the Kansas City metro area. She's also expanding services to all areas through an online app called AskSAMIE.com that connects people with the right adaptive equipment and resources to maintain their independence.