Hampshire County Council Help Silver Surfers

Hampshire County Council uses IT to relieve loneliness among the county’s older population.

15:01 27 December 2017

According to a report released by Campaign to End Loneliness, 17% of the UK’s older population are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week, while 40% say television is their main source of companionship.

 

Graham Allen, Hampshire council’s director of adults’ health and care, says that technology, such as tablet computers and videoconferencing, can be used to relieve loneliness in residents aged upwards of 65.

 

Allen, a former social worker, said: “What we identified over the course of the pilot was an additional 150 hours of face-to-face contact that people benefited from as a result of using the devices, but also, they started to establish networks within the local community,”

 

We are absolutely not in the game of deploying technology just to reduce cost. The outcomes have to be at least equal, if not better, than traditional forms of service provision.

 

“It’s not only about talking to someone on the other side of the world, but about using the technology to find out what’s happening locally, whether it be informal lunch clubs, or making connections with people, perhaps from school.”