Dementia-friendly microwave oven

Sterlingtimes

I am not sure whether my 94-year-old mother suffers from dementia, but she exhibits various cognitive impairment traits. She has a carer attending in the morning,  I care for her at midday, and she manages to heat her evening meal and put herself to bed.

I am failing to teach her to use the microwave oven. The button sequence is just too complex for her. She has managed to switch the grill on and melt her third saucepan. I may try to cover up the buttons that she much not use.

Is there such a thing as a dementia-friendly microwave oven with no buttons and no grill? That may be the simplest way forward.

MovingForwards

You just need a basic one like this:
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8999247?clickPR=plp:6:61

in_my_wellies

I agree with the above example. My mum could cope with that and now I have passed it on to her blind sister she can manage it too. Very simple

trevjl

Exactly the one my 90 year old mum has had for over 5 years and she hasn't burnt anything yet. TBH mine is not much different, I can't see the point of all these fancy buttons and functions. it heats things up, end of for me.

Sterlingtimes

MovingForwards said:

You just need a basic one like this:
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8999247?clickPR=plp:6:61

Brilliant! That looks ideal. Many thanks.

Sterlingtimes

trevjl said:

Exactly the one my 90 year old mum has had for over 5 years and she hasn't burnt anything yet. TBH mine is not much different, I can't see the point of all these fancy buttons and functions. it heats things up, end of for me.

Please, does the time control click each time it is advanced by one minute or is the control continuously variable? My mother's eyesight is poor (macular degeneration), so a click may help.

in_my_wellies

Sterlingtimes said:

trevjl said:

Exactly the one my 90 year old mum has had for over 5 years and she hasn't burnt anything yet. TBH mine is not much different, I can't see the point of all these fancy buttons and functions. it heats things up, end of for me.

Please, does the time control click each time it is advanced by one minute or is the control continuously variable? My mother's eyesight is poor (macular degeneration), so a click may help.

Mine was continuous, no clicks which would have been useful. 
My aunts son painted some raised dots at minute intervals round the edge of the button and she can feel where she has turned it to. It's like Tipp-Ex and dries raised, we think she was given it by the RNIB when she was first diagnosed. She has 'dots' on the cooker, central heating thermostat, phone, TV remote.......etc 

Here it is:
https://shop.rnib.org.uk/rnib-tacti-mark-tactile-labelling?DL40

Sterlingtimes

in_my_wellies said:

Here it is:
https://shop.rnib.org.uk/rnib-tacti-mark-tactile-labelling?DL40

Thank you. I will get the microwave oven ordered from Argos. I think that the answer will always be 3.5 minutes for soup or the reheating of pre-prepared meals, which should simplify matters.

My mother's brother managed to burn a flat out in Tenerife by using a second-hand fryer gifted to him. I am reluctant to take any unnecessary chances. 

trevjl

Agreed, no clicks, but my mum has sight in only one eye and not too great in the other and she manages with it.

elsien

Would colour coding work for her - if she’s struggling with numbers, a red dot at the 3.5 minute mark, for example?
 Then she just has to turn the dial to the dot and not worry about anything else.
Some of them are unnecessarily complicated sometimes, let alone if you have a cognitive impairment.

Sterlingtimes

elsien said:

Would colour coding work for her - if she’s struggling with numbers, a red dot at the 3.5 minute mark, for example?
 Then she just has to turn the dial to the dot and not worry about anything else.
Some of them are unnecessarily complicated sometimes, let alone if you have a cognitive impairment.

I have ordered the microwave oven from Argos that others have proposed.

Yes, I will follow your path and try colour coding in the first instance. My mother plays a game of pretending that she cannot see things which she can. She has a habit of telling people that she is "totally blind". I gave up trying to teach my mother the operating sequence today. The Zanussi really is far from intuitive.