The homes across The Fremantle Trust have been using tablets to keep residents in contact with their loved ones through video calls. Thanks to Sue Faulkner, our Community and Lifestyle Manager, we obtained a grant from Heart of Bucks, which enabled us to purchase more technology to use across our services.

Heart of Bucks kindly awarded us £4,940 – an incredible amount towards helping us maintain residents’ well-being. Fellow colleague, Mike Goddridge, then sourced the equipment from John Lewis and managed to get a further discount, enabling us to purchase a grand total of 41 tablets and 41 Google Chromecasts.

The tablets are being used to enable residents to communicate with their loved ones via Duo video calls. Team members have also been teaching residents how to use Skype so that they can send pictures and messages to family and friends. As you can see, this has become an incredibly meaningful way of staying in touch!

The Chromecasts allow the homes to connect devices (like tablets or phones) to the main TV, enabling residents to watch their personalised YouTube playlists, as well as play games on a bigger, more accessible screen. The Chromecasts are also being used to show videos of chair exercises and Zumba onto the bigger TV screens, a temporary yet effective substitute for the usual fitness instructors that come into the homes.

The homes are also planning on using Zoom to hold inter-house quizzes, Bingo games and other activities – we expect the competition to be fierce as always!

It has been great to see residents across the homes learning how to use the tablets and Chromecasts. It just goes to show that technology isn’t only for the younger generation!

Residents and colleagues at The Fremantle Trust would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who made this possible.