What is a calendar clock?

A digital clock whose main job is the date rather than the time. The weekday and full date are the largest text on the screen, with the part of the day underneath.

Where is the best place to put one?

Wherever the first long sit of the day happens — usually the armchair in the living room, or a bedside table if early waking is the difficulty. Hallways look tidy but nobody stands in them long enough to read.

Do I need one in every room?

Two is plenty for most homes: one where mornings start and one where the day is spent. More than that tends to stop being noticed.

Do they need setting up every year?

A good one sets itself and handles the clock changes in March and October on its own. Avoid anything that expects the date to be entered by hand.

Practical guide

Dementia calendar clocks

Most people who search for a dementia clock actually want a calendar clock: the day and the date, large enough to read from a chair, with no setting up. Here is how to choose one and where to put it.

Why the date matters more than the time

Time of day usually sorts itself out through light, meals and the television. The day of the week is the part that slips, and it slips in ways that cause real upset: missing a visit, getting ready for something that happened yesterday, or feeling caught out on the phone.

A calendar clock treats the date as the headline. 'Tuesday' in big letters, '14 January' underneath, then the part of the day. Once it is on the sideboard, nobody has to be the person who corrects anyone.

What separates a good one from a frustrating one

The weekday written in full — 'Wednesday', not 'WED'.
Non-abbreviated month, and a font you can read across a room in poor light.
Automatic time setting, including the spring and autumn changes.
Mains power with battery backup, so a power cut does not wipe it.
A matte screen — glossy plastic in a bay window is unreadable by ten in the morning.
Night dimming, if it is going into a bedroom.

Where families end up putting them

The armchair beats the hallway every time. The clock needs to be in the eyeline of the place where someone sits for twenty minutes with a cup of tea, because that is when a glance turns into a piece of information that sticks.

If early waking is the problem you are solving, the bedside table matters more than the living room — but choose one that dims, or you will trade confusion for a lit-up bedroom.

The honest limit

A calendar clock knows the date but nothing about the week. It cannot say that Thursday is the day the shopping arrives, and it will never tell you whether it was looked at. If your worry is not orientation but the two or three moments a day that need to happen, a clock will not carry that weight.

That is the gap You Care Reminders fills: a short message in your own words at a time you choose, with a single tap to confirm, so you can stop guessing how the day went.

The wider picture

roughly 6 in 10

people with dementia in the UK live in their own home, not in care.

Source: Alzheimer's Society

Being straight with you

You Care Reminders is a non-medical wellness tool, not monitoring and not an alarm. Delivery is best effort rather than guaranteed, and it must not be used for medication reminders. In an emergency, call 999.

Questions carers ask

Set the first reminder tonight

It takes about five minutes, costs nothing to start, and the person you care for has nothing to install.