25.4.2012

Facebook for the elderly

VIRTU – vitalise your life

The population is ageing rapidly. Municipalities are responsible for producing various services in the field of social and health care with constantly decreasing resources. VIRTU (Virtual Elderly Care Services on the Baltic Islands) rises to the challenge and creates chances for the elderly to survive longer at home.

Project manager Heidi Tuominen

The VIRTU project takes different services directly to senior citizens’ homes with the help of technology. Municipalities save money when a senior citizen can, should he/she want to, live longer at home and gain access to more services and contacts to others through a shared discussion and meeting place. However, technology is not intended to replace real home care visits.

Beneficial for municipalities

Many senior citizens, who have difficulties with getting by without daily help, live in the archipelago in remote areas, for example several ferry rides away.  Here the VIRTU channel can help.

“For example in Velkua and Pargas, doctors’ house calls are carried out through the channel. Home care control visits are also implemented with the help of the channel”, says Project Manager Heidi Tuominen from TUAS.

Altogether six Finnish and eight Estonian archipelago municipalities are currently involved in the project.

The VIRTU channel is not intended to replace face-to-face social interaction, but act as something extra in senior citizens’ social interactions and facilitate the access to services. In addition, it creates a sense of safety in senior citizens’ everyday life.

The VIRTU terminal is a computer with a touch screen. Its software works similarly to video conference software. Thus, on the channel, one can have a talking or visual connection with several people at once. The person who is speaking appears as the largest on the screen, and the images of other parties are smaller. The images of nine people can simultaneously appear on the screen.

“The programme has featured, for example, interactive lectures about diabetes, discussion, info about preventing accidents at home, a pharmaceutical service and music. Or, you can just catch up with other users outside the actual broadcasts.”

Embrace technology

The prejudice that senior citizens are somehow afraid of adopting new technology is not confirmed by the VIRTU project experiences. Almost the contrary.

“User experiences have been positive and the device has been considered easy to use. The oldest user is 91 years old”, adds Tuominen.

Workers already in the field have found it more challenging to adopt the technology as a part of the work. Learning new work practices takes time, when working time resources are limited and one must reconsider his/her own attitudes. Technology does certainly bring its own challenges to the devices’ functions.

“The device connections, which work through the internet, have been changed from mobile to fixed, and this has clearly improved their certainty”, says Heidi Tuominen.

The device is installed by cooperation partner Videra Oy or MikaArvola, Systems Specialist at TUAS. Theysort out the device ready at your home and also instruct how to use it.  Currently a little less than a hundred devices have been installed.

Programme by force of students

Students are extensively involved from the fields of social chare and occupational and physiotherapy.

“In addition, future nurses, dental hygienists, public health nurses and hospitality management students are involved”, continues Heidi Tuominen.

The programmes are thoroughly checked before they are broadcast. The selected student might be a bit nervous at first.

“It is very different to face a client virtually than face to face, when you can make conclusions about the client’s condition by touching or by sensory observations”, says Tuominen.

Students gain experience on virtual remote guidance, which will most likely become more general in future working life.

www.virtuproject.fi

Photo: Joonas Salo