AgedConnect | Connecting the older generation with the wider community

What is the problem you found?

How might we connect the older generations with the wider community? 

Customer / Problem

Meet Jane - an 80-year-old woman living in a nursing home. She is lonely, with little interaction, and there is no-one to check in on her. She cannot leave her room without assistance. Jane is one of 1.2 million Australians who received aged care support every year. 

What Is Your Solution?

At AgedConnect we have a goal to help aged care residents feel more connected with their community and others, reducing the feeling of loneliness. We provide two services to nursing homes; our wide range of activities, and our main service, the online pen-pal program. We connect older residents with our volunteers over multiple phone calls each week. Possible alternatives also include video calls and letters.

To validate our solution we spoke to aged care workers and members of the community. We found that older members of the community often don't have family or friends who visit and are lonely and so there is demand for more activities. We also found that out of 141 people surveyed, only two were not interested in the pen pal service.