"Push to Talk" Could Connect the Socially Isolated

Liverpool engineering firm reveals new tech solution to combat loneliness caused by coronavirus lockdown and isolation.

00:30 12 April 2020

DefProc, a Liverpool-based engineering firm, is looking forward to bringing its 'Push to Talk' device to combat loneliness for millions of people left isolated by the coronavirus. 

 

Husband and wife team Jen and Pat Fenner of DefProc said that the device was originally designed to help people in communities who struggle to socialise, like unpaid family carers and the elderly. It was developed in 2014 as part of a health and social care hack-day arranged for Liverpool City Council. 

 

Jen said: "Nobody would have predicted COVID-19 and the UK-wide lockdown that has left millions of vulnerable people isolated and lonely. We feel that Push to Talk could make a huge difference in people's lives everywhere." 

 

"We've been working on Push to Talk for five years but the problem we were setting out to alleviate is now a hundred times bigger because of COVID-19 so we've decided to put the effort of the business into rolling this service out." 

 

Explaining how it works, Jen said: "Push to Talk is very simple to use, whether it is the button or the app, it works the same way. When a person is ready to talk to someone, they press their buttons; then they will get a phone call that connects them to someone else's who also wants to talk, and has also just pressed their button. The people are matched randomly so this gives them each the opportunity to talk to many different people, but to know that they are talking with someone they have something in common with."