Adding life to years
Login
Join us
Text size:
-+=

“eSmart Elderly” ICT Outreach Programme

“eSmart Elderly” ICT Outreach Programme

Summary

The Wan Chai Methodist Centre for the Seniors was funded by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, The HKSAR Government (OGCIO), to run the “eSmart Elderly” ICT Outreach Programme”. The programme provided an outreach service for ‘hidden’ older people, people with dementia, older people who are living in residential homes, and older people who are receiving day care or home care services.

The programme aimed to enhance older people’s self-esteem by equipping them with the modern technology through a series of training workshops. It contains four main elements, including teaching older people to use e-health devices and managing various health data; conducting online health talks or seminars for older people; conducting cognitive training and games for people with dementia via tablet computers; and conducting rehabilitation training for older people using different geron-technology products.

Due to the outbreak of COVID pandemic, most of the face-to-face training workshops in the residential homes and day care centres in the first quarter were held via online platforms.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/%E5%BE%AA%E9%81%93%E8%A1%9B%E7%90%86%E4%B8%AD%E5%BF%83-%E9%95%B7%E8%80%85%E5%8F%8A%E5%81%A5%E5%BA%B7%E6%9C%8D%E5%8B%99-630896837531715/

Key facts

Main target group: Older people with chronic health conditions or disability

Other target group(s): N/A

Sector(s): Health, Information and communication, Long-term care

Other sector(s): N/A

Desired outcome for older people:
Build and maintain relationships

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Dementia

Contact details

Name: Kwok-wai, Sabina KOO

Email address: sabinakoo.kkw@gmail.com

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Social or health care provider

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities

How collaboration worked: The programme has been funded by Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, The HKSAR Government (OGCIO). With the support of the Wai Chai District Council, the programme is organised and evaluated by the Wan Chai Methodist Centre for the Seniors.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were not directly involved

Details on older people’s involvement: Older people are the target participants of the programme.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: Yes

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Please share with us what you found in detail:
After joining the programme, participants encouraged their peers to use digital devices for social interaction. Also, they shared their learning with peers so as to build up a group with mutual support. Moreover, they can build up a positive relationship with family and relatives. Their grandsons were more willing to communicate with them via social software so as to strengthen cross-generational relationship.

Feedback:
Many participants learned the alternative way to connect to community through technological devices, such as using social software and applications. Also, they agreed that it improved their quality of life, especially learning different recreational applications. On the other side, some of the participants expressed that the application and function of digital devices were always upgrading, they had to spend lots of time to adapt to the fast changes.

Expansion plans:
For expanding the age-friendly practice, we plan to invite student volunteers to teach older people using technological devices so as to promote harmony across generations.

Looking back

Reflections:
For planning an ICT programme, it is important to explore the different needs in various age groups. For younger participants, they seek a more advanced level of digital knowledge; for older participants, they seek more foundational level knowledge for using devices. Therefore, the programme is not only divided by the cognitive function, but also the needs in different age groups.

Challenges:
Some of the participants, who used digital devices rarely, were afraid to destroy them. They refused to use any devices at the beginning. Older volunteers (ICT ambassadors) were invited to assist the ICT programme and interact with the participants. They understood more about the needs and inquiries. As a result, the participants were motivated to use the digital devices.