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Dementia and Alzheimer's

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Camera which doesn’t need wifi

12 replies

Bunny2607 · 04/10/2025 12:44

Hi everyone
my SIL has dementia, she lives with a companion who also has dementia. They live in a sheltered accommodation type setting, independently but with support from me and DH. They are forgetful but not to the point of needing professional round the clock care. The main issue we have is money, she has free access to her bank account and husband has power of attorney. She started withdrawing all of her pension within 3/4 days, hundreds of pounds then she wouldn’t know where it was and wouldn’t have any money for rest of month and her bills were bouncing as she’d emptied the account. This went on a few months and eventually husband used POA to open a second account for her and he now transfers her pension to her weekly to drip feed her to ensure her bills don’t bounce and she doesn’t withdraw the lot and lose it. She is now accessing smaller amounts weekly but is still losing the money.
we can’t be sure she isn’t giving it away or someone taking it off her, so we are wondering if there is a camera we can set up so we can see some of whats going on but she doesn’t have internet.

does anyone know of a camera which will connect to my husbands phone so he can watch but that works without an internet connection? Thank you

OP posts:
FusionChefGeoff · 04/10/2025 13:00

You need to look for one that has space for a large memory card that you change regularly. If she doesn’t have any internet it can’t connect to anything as it records so will need internal storage

Bunny2607 · 04/10/2025 13:03

FusionChefGeoff · 04/10/2025 13:00

You need to look for one that has space for a large memory card that you change regularly. If she doesn’t have any internet it can’t connect to anything as it records so will need internal storage

Ok thank you, so would we then only be able to see the footage by taking the memory card out and using it in a laptop or something?

OP posts:
BettyTurpinPies · 04/10/2025 13:06

Ok thank you, so would we then only be able to see the footage by taking the memory card out and using it in a laptop or something?
yes.
Won't the sheltered accommodation have wi-fi?

lifeisgoodrightnow · 04/10/2025 13:11

In a similar situation we fitted a wildlife camera which didn’t need connection to WiFi and stored on an sd card

openthewindoweveryday · 04/10/2025 13:14

You won’t be able to watch live on your phone without an internet connection. Could you look into those wireless internet connection things powered by mobile data, which you can put in their flat to connect the camera to?

FixTheBone · 04/10/2025 13:14

If you want to watch remotely, it needs an internet connection, or at least a network connection.

You can get cameras that store on a home network, but they take a bit of wiring up / installation.

LIZS · 04/10/2025 17:46

Is she registered as vulnerable with the bank and he as the poa? You may be able to flag unusual behaviour and limit withdrawals.

Bunny2607 · 05/10/2025 10:12

BettyTurpinPies · 04/10/2025 13:06

Ok thank you, so would we then only be able to see the footage by taking the memory card out and using it in a laptop or something?
yes.
Won't the sheltered accommodation have wi-fi?

No they don’t unfortunately, and the mobile phone signal is really bad too its in abit of a black hole where she is.

OP posts:
Bunny2607 · 05/10/2025 10:14

LIZS · 04/10/2025 17:46

Is she registered as vulnerable with the bank and he as the poa? You may be able to flag unusual behaviour and limit withdrawals.

yes he has registered the POA with the bank, its been in place years but its only the last 18months or so he’s had to do more but its to the point now where he is fully managing her finances. The bank said they can limit withdrawals but would have to limit them in his card too, which we didn’t want to do incase something arose where we needed to withdraw a chunk of cash. Thats why we decided to set a second account up for his sister and split her pension weekly for her as before she’d lost all her money within a week 😢

OP posts:
Bunny2607 · 05/10/2025 10:19

openthewindoweveryday · 04/10/2025 13:14

You won’t be able to watch live on your phone without an internet connection. Could you look into those wireless internet connection things powered by mobile data, which you can put in their flat to connect the camera to?

I did think about this but the signal generally where she lives is bad, when we go we end up with no phone signal etc.

its just difficult to know what to do, we could look at getting internet installed there i guess but i didnt want to go to too much expense as it will only show us whats going on in her living room. If shes going to the communal area and giving money away the camera wont help us.

we do suspect she is either giving it to the other people who live there or being asked for money. Recently a netflix subscription got set up on her bank account that she said she knew nothing about but we suspect she had given her card to someone else and said here use this.

we also spoke to her cleaner who said she insists on giving her extra every time and the cleaner is taking it. So my husband said to the cleaner i will pay you by bank transfer now and told his sister not to pay her but we can’t be sure sister still isn’t giving her cash.

there are a couple of other people we are suspicious of also which is why we thought about a hidden camera but struggling connectivity wise 😖😖

OP posts:
openthewindoweveryday · 05/10/2025 11:01

It sounds like a really difficult situation OP I’m sorry you and DH are navigating this Flowers

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