New horizons through the experience of digital participation for residents of old people's facilities across country borders

We wanted to provide support, that elderly people do not feel alone, that they are part of the society, that they can connect and also have new topics around them to speak about with their friends...

We wanted to provide support, that elderly people do not feel alone, that they are part of the society, that they can connect and also have new topics around them to speak about with their friends in the institutions, but also within their families. This is to make them in the best case more independent and interested in other topics than they have normally to do with. Also we wanted to bring into contact generations through the technical support of younger people to the elderly. The aim was to make digital advices useful and normal part of daily life, but not in the sense of replacing already existing personal contacts, but in the way, to add value to them where it seems to be of use.

We did after a Kick-off meeting with a presentation of all participating institutions and a lot of personal contact before and after monthly workshops (digital), where we offered common singings, sports, culture or other activities like foto exchange or literature. Besides from that there was established a weekly date, through that the elderly people had the chance to come like into an coffee hour and to speak via digital devices to the participants in the other institutions. This was done with the help of the employees in the institutions. Additionally we worked on the project to have a final personal exchange in Romania. With the input of that we started to work on a website which documented everything we collected within the project and also a book, which will be published soon, which takes the topic into account from a scientific point of view.

Elderly people like to learn, but they are different from younger in the way, that the don´t do it for every price. So they first have to find the trust in the persons, than in the idea and lastly into the technique. They will not use provided technical devices by there own, so it makes much more sense to start group activities as we did. That allows the people who are more into the technique but not only that, people who are more open in general, to bring up this personal character, but also the ones who are more unsafe or feel unsure, to participate without being in absolute focus. That allows to help each other, but it also showed us, that it is barely impossible to leave senior residents alone with the digital technique. The same is to say about the network meeting we held - it is not to replace by digital meetings or tools although they help a lot to prepare a successful event. Additionally we had to take into account, that it is still possible to learn, but it also needs topics which are known and where the people feel safe. This is the only possibility to come up with new topics and to implement ways, to permanently work on that.