Facebook to Help Care Home Residents Connect with Family

The NHS to partner with Facebook to combat lockdown loneliness.

10:05 08 April 2020

As British care homes prohibit visits from friends and family members during the coronavirus lockdown, care home residents are starting to feel isolated and lonely. 

 

The NHS in now in talks with Facebook to arrange for the distribution of portal devices to help home residents stay connected with their loved ones through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp app. 

 

Well-placed sources confirm that the NHS is now about to launch a pilot in which 2,000 portal devices will be handed to care homes in Surrey and another city in the north, which could be Newcastle, Manchester or Leeds. 

 

A spokesperson for CHD Living, a Surrey-based care home group, which is already experimenting with Facebook portals to remotely connect their residents to their loved ones, said:“We are aware of Facebook donating 2,000 portals to the NHS in order to facilitate communication between people living in care homes and their loved ones,” 

 

“We have been contacted by the project managers of this campaign and they have offered access to these Portals as part of a trial.” 

 

“CHD Living is supporting the campaign by helping to partner the NHS with other Surrey care providers. They do not want to take away valuable resources from others who will benefit, but are partaking in the trial using the technology that they have already purchased,”