Any tips?

unplug the phone?

Keep a cell phone for your own use so people can reach you, and make the house phone unavailable?

Or is she living alone?
I guess we need more information.

She is in asst'd living. We are afraid she would panic if we cut off her service and also it is the only way for my other sister and I to reach her semi-frequently -- we live out of state. I have thought about telling my sister who lives in same town to tell here she changed her phone number and give my Mom the cell # but am also worried she may panic about that. Am just curious if others also have same prob.

Check to see if your sister can block and unblock numbers on her phone service. I had an apt manager one time that would call me for idiotic reasons at 11:30 pm right around the time that the rent was due. So around the 3rd week of the month, I would block just HER number. She would get a recording that the number was unavailable and to try back later. It would not, however, inhibit any other phone calls from coming through.

I guess I would want more information. Is she calling in a panic or just wanting to visit?

Is she frightened? Is she lonesome? Is she bored? What stage of dementia is she in? What meds is she on?

These could all reflect on what you could/should do.

We don't know what stage she is in -- has never been definitively diagnosed. Her reasons for calling are all over the board. Sometimes panic, sometimes -- what time is my hair appt., sometimes what time is breakfast, (both clearly posted in her room). sometimes loneliness. She is on Seraquel and Martztipane (sp?). We have tried Aricept and Namenda and she did not respond well at all and got much worse and also physical (stomach) sidd effects.

My grandmother calls all hours sometimes and several times a day. Usually the earlist has been 5am and I was not happy, so I can understand!! She also calls on her bad days every 5 min to ask the same exact question over and over. There is times that I just cannot answer it. I turn down the answering machine so I cannot hear the voice talking and just let it pick up. Then when I can, I call her back. That is why God made answering machines!!! Ok not for dementia patients but ya get the idea! LOL!

Thanks for some good ideas folks -- keep 'em coming if anyone else has any. Kimberlee, sorry you are in same boat.....she called my sis at 6:30 a.m. NY day after they got home at 2am. Has also called at 3 and 4 in the morning and the repeated phone calls with same Q's like your grandmother. My sis is also happy for the invention of the ans. machine!!

Thing that amazes me is that she cannot remember other things but she sure can remember if I don't answer that phone or call her back right away. By the 3rd answering machine message it is "Why don't you ever pick up the phone!? I could be dead or something!!!" Ummm and she would be calling if she were???

That's too funny.
Mom was, a couple years ago, FRANTIC that I was pulling the oldoldold and useless and expired stuff off her fridge, including a couple of phone numbers of people who had moved or died. Mom was saying "That's Jan's old number. What if I need to get hold of her?", and nearly weeping. Jan, btw, annoyed the heck outta Mom with her hypochondria.

As I mentioned, I took Mom's phone away. We're gonna try again, with a fancypants Alz'z store phone, and see how it goes. But I just think having a phone gets to be too much for them.