App helps build sense of connection
VIDEO: Associate Professor Jenny Waycott discusses the findings of the Dossy Community Connect project at this week’s AAG conference in Hobart.
A trial connecting isolated older adults with volunteers via a simplified video calling application has found benefits for both groups, a conference showcasing the latest research related to ageing and aged care has heard.
Associate Professor Jenny Waycott from the University of Melbourne delivered learnings from the Dossy Community Connect project on Wednesday to delegates at the Australian Association of Gerontology national conference in Hobart.
The research was led by Dossy founder Kristen Graham and Associate Professor Ryan Kelly from RMIT University in collaboration with Victorian aged care provider Uniting AgeWell and not-for-profit social connections facilitator Ageing with Grace.
The three-month trial – which involved 21 older adults, 29 volunteers and over 220 video calls – was funded by ARIIA. It follows an inital pilot of the Dossy application involving older people and their network of family members.
Associate Professor Waycott said benefits of the community project included a sense of connection and older people being able to talk to someone when they wanted to. Challenges identified included maintaining conversations and establishing deeper connections.
“In future work, we think it would be really valuable to build in algorithms that connect people by common interests, and not just availability, and to create more opportunities for people to build those ongoing connections,” Associate Professor Waycott told Community Care Review following her presentaiton.
In this video Associate Professor Walcott discusses the Dossy Community Connect trial and its findings:
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