Later Life Choices Glenrothes

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Organisation statement:

When there are no restrictions in place, we provide 6 different services for older people living in the Glenrothes and the surrounding villages, including specific services for people living with dementia. Our services are; Active Ageing Day Services, Befriending, Community Based (getting out and about), Dementia Activity Groups, Dementia Home Support and Help to Stay at Home.

Commitment to digital participation:

We recently conducted a survey of our 150 clients which revealed that on 17% have Wi-Fi and only 6% have devices that can be used to access the internet. During lockdown we sourced funding to offer our clients Kindle Fires, which 23 clients benefitted from. We have invested in new laptops so staff can contact clients via Zoom etc. If our recent funding application is successful we will be actively working with our clients to encourage them to embrace technology and provide them with the support to do so. We feel that many older people are missing out. Lockdown made it difficult for them to carry out many practical tasks - shopping, banking etc so we are hoping to encourage people to invest in devices so this can be done on line.

Support offered:

Age Concern Glenrothes aim to provide selected clients with voice activated devices to make it easier for them to access the internet. We also aim to provide regular online group activities to reduce isolation and loneliness. We will provide help, information and encouragement for our clients to embrace technology and learn new skills.

Support wanted:

Within our organisation we have a designated staff member who has the knowledge and skills to develop and deliver our proposed activities. Our main requirement is funding for laptops for those older people that can't afford to buy them themselves.

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