Can tech devices to support the senior citizens to minimise loneliness?
Over
the decades, ageing people facing a perfect storming time. They will go to
retirement age when people are tasting long live than ever, pensions amount are
in crisis local authorities and national government are facing unprecedented
spending reductions. Socio-economic challenges, serious medical conditions and
the resulting from ageing are on the rise – with dementia causing various
distress to many older people and their families and alienated proving a
present curse.
This crisis will only rise over
the time. Tax revenues continue to diminish and state-led solutions, which for
the past 70 years have given dignity, comfort, are not going to provide all the
answers in future, and care for people in old age, no way which political party
is ruling the country.
Thankfully, government
departments, charitable trusts and local authorities and are alert to these
challenges, and providing efforts to solve. From the Department of charity organizations
and Health like Unit, Nest and the Callouses Galatian Foundation, funders and
researchers are embracing innovation and taking punts on ideas – seeking the
concepts, partnerships and technologies that could be improved and rolled out
more widely in the future, and at low cost.
Spurred
by research indicating that people aged between 50 and 74 are more likely to
volunteer, Unit has a programmer to increase the number of social enterprises
developed by older people, for older people.
It is hoped that user-led entrepreneurial ism will inspire dozens of hyper-local schemes, each responding
to a particular group. That must be a blueprint for the national government’s
approach, too – unleashing new projects, learning from the best, and applying
the skills, expertise and human interaction that’s so important for a healthy
life.
In particular, entrepreneurs are
harnessing the power of digital technology to bring people together to develop local solutions to
international problems.
Granny net is a website that
supports a community of more than 3,000 grandmothers. It is a vibrant digital
community that also provides access to offline courses for grandparents to get
to grips with modern parenting methods. Its founder, Verity Gill, says the site
is a place “to exchange the positive experiences of grand parenting and also a
course of support through the bad bits”.
Cure, a new technology platform
set up in Wiltshire, is a website that helps families and friends share in the
delivery of care for their loved ones. Based on a simple, secure and sharable
online calendar, Cure offers respite and provides peace of mind for some of the
six million unpaid careers in the UK.
The social enterprise I founded,
North London Cares, uses social media to recruit young professionals to help
support elderly neighbors with low level but crucial tasks, such as getting the
weekly shopping done, or making that all important GP appointment. Those small,
personal interactions can have a really positive effect in people’s lives,
providing the connection, companionship, comfort and care many of our more
isolated neighbors need.
In the networked age, that human
capital and civic participation represent a potent force waiting to be
harnessed for the improved care of our older friends and family. Government,
and an enabling mentality across the broader social and private sectors, has a
big role to play in unleashing that powerful resource.
In the private sector, too, new
solutions – often built around new digital techniques – are beginning to
appear. Some supermarkets are looking at how to use the web to better serve
their older customers, including to reduce the cost of an average food basket.
Banks are seeking similar ways to provide a more accessible service to their
older customers –consulting with customers, developing networks, and responding
with improved systems.
Of course, no single group or
idea will provide all the solutions. But, given the nature of the problem – and
the power of modern technology to connect, enthuse and inspire – I’m confident
that in the coming decade we will make strides in deploying technology and
human capital to tackle perhaps the greatest challenge of our time: how we care
for our older relatives and neighbors in a rapidly increased senior citizens.
Further study can be conducted to get the real result of this scenario and
providing technology to our senior citizens to access it.
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