It is no doubt a known fact that old age is a painful time especially when you have been abandoned by your near and dear ones — there few common issues that the elderly have to face with each passing day both regarding physical and mental health. Their problems range from chronic health conditions to cognitive health and mental health issues which are induced by loneliness and can result in severe depression.
An Irish startup wants to undertake the loneliness issue for the senior citizens by using technology to create real connections between older adults and their near and dear ones.
The company, Allwayswithyou is a cloud-based digital family platform that lets people connect with older adults living alone or in long-term care settings, which in turn can curb the growing challenge of depression among the elderly.
Allwayswithyou makes it simpler and feasible for families to organize and share digital albums of people, events, and special moments with the elderly in their lives. In a care home, the platform can act as a conversation trigger which will allow the nursing staff to get to know seniors in an enhanced manner by finding out more about their family and life experiences. Allwayswithyou is characterized as a “family platform,” it can be used by older adults who do not have direct family and can network with people. For instance, a caring organization could use the platform to customize content for any older adult depending on their interests.
The entire idea behind building this application was to creating content which is suitable for the elderly who have less knowledge about the various apps that are available out there and are unable to use the most modern smartphones. According to the management of Allwayswithyou, the platform is simple to use, where one of the family member can craete an account and invites other members to create a family circle or group. The Allwayswithyou app is downloadable onto a tablet used by the person in concern.
It has been established that any member of the family circle can upload content to share with the older adult who can include photographs, favorite tv shows, sports channel, music, events to name a few. The idea of the personalized content model is more appealing for older adults who may have limited dexterity or struggle to steer through obscured interfaces. The system is versatile with different usage modes created to cater to individual needs. For example, if the user is not familiar with touchscreens, playback is fully automated, and the platforms function like a personalized television channel. On the one hand, where the user is comfortable with a tablet, they may want to choose the interactive mode, where they can determine what content to view and when they would like to see it.
Applications can these can significantly assist the elderly, and with the prediction that the number of people with dementia globally will reach 130 Mn by 2050, reminiscence therapy is being anticipated to have a beneficial effect on sufferers, enhancing mood and reducing challenging behaviors.
