How technology is helping communication at FitzRoy

Ben has lived at Dalvington and The Oaks care home in Worcestershire for the last nine years. Ben uses technology to express himself, which has been particularly useful for him following the sad loss of his father.

He had previously lived with his family until his dad became too unwell. Moving out of his family home was obviously very stressful for Ben and thanks to technology, we were able to support him to make his move as smooth as possible.

Service Manager Louise said, “Whenever we have new people, you’ve got to sit down, observe and see what’s the right way to help them move forward. But with Ben, he’s great with technology. His family taught him how to type on a keyboard, so we were able to use that to talk to him and understand how he was feeling straight away.”

In 2018, Dalvington and The Oaks received vital funding from the Ian Karten Charitable Trust for some new kit, including a giant touch screen, which is housed in a dedicated computer technology room that all our residents can access. This equipment played a vital role during lockdown.

Louise continued:

It’s just brilliant, we can play games on it, we have movie nights and it’s great for video calls with families too, especially during lockdown.

“When Ben lost his dad and another resident who he was close to, he was able to express himself and how he was feeling using these games and talking to us on the keyboard or on his iPad really helped process everything he was going through. It helped us support him and his needs better. It was great for him to be able to speak to his family on the screen when they couldn’t visit too.

“Ben is also a part of the FitzRoy Nationwide group, a group of people we support who meet regularly to discuss issues around their support and things FitzRoy are doing well or should do differently, and the touch screen allows him to see everyone and take part in the discussion using the chat features.”

FitzRoy is a proud member of the Karten Network, a network of IT centres for disabled people.