The Benefits Of Technology For Seniors From a Tech Specialist's Perspective

Did you know there are currently around 7 million carers in the UK? That equates to 1 in 10 of us. Many of those carers are doing it for friends of family. Being a carer is challenging. Sometimes you need a little bit of inspiration for a new activity so I hoped my experience may help you.

Over the years I have worked with people to use technology to better their lives. But there was a group of people that seemed to be missing out and that was those who suffer from Dementia.

I want to tell you about a gentleman (I will call him Jim for confidentiality purposes) from South Devon that I worked with.

I attended Jim's local memory cafe. When I arrived I was surprised by the number of carers that told me not to bother working with many of the people as they wouldn't be able to use technology.

This didn't put me off. I walked over to a gentleman, his wife told me she didn't think he would talk to me but I sat down and started talking to him. I asked him where he grew up. He told me, whilst he was telling me I started googling the location on the iPad to find images. I asked him what his first job was. He told me and he started talking about the way. He told me his regiment number and where he was based, I googled it and found images. That's when the magic happened. We stumbled across an image of his regiment. He started pointing to faces within the picture and names them. He then started saying a word that I didn't understand but I googled how I thought it was spelt and up came an image of a second world war plan. He smiled and pointed at the image. We continued talking for about 30 minutes whilst I searched for images. Every time I got to an image that he recognised I screenshot it so that it created a slide show of all of his images. His smile was so big it brought tears to all of our eyes. His wife was blown away. She hadn't realised that he remembered some of those times.

A few weeks later I returned to spend some time with Jim. Whilst using the iPad he started to use his finger to search through the images. His wife told me he when he was younger he was a great card player so I opened a solitaire app. He started to move the cards around himself. It was extraordinary. He had been unable to play cards with a pack of cards as he was unable to hold them but he was able to play using the iPad.

Jim's wife was so overcome with emotion. She later purchased Jim an iPad for him to use at home. She contacted me to tell me it had changed her life. It now meant that she could give Jim the iPad whilst she hung the washing out without panicking about him wandering off.

I know this may all seem rather simple when you think about it but try this with your patient or loved one. It really can make a difference to you, and most of all, to them.

Note - You may ask why I use Apple and not some of the more affordable tablets such as an Android or Windows tablet. I have used all of the different types over the years but the only one that this works with is an Apple. Apple's operating system is far more intuitive. Which makes it easier to use.

*This is a guest post contributed by Lizzie Whitchurch, a Devon-based business support specialist.*