ScHARR project helps the elderly to stay in touch

A new computer system, developed by Dr Peter Cudd at ScHARR, is helping pensioners get to grips with technology, and also letting them reap a variety of health benefits – keeping their minds active and leaving them feeling less isolated.

The £200,000 project, MAAVIS (Managed Access To Audio Visual And Information Services), was installed in nine care homes over a six-month trial period in Yorkshire and is now free to download to your PC. It requires a touch screen to allow users to manoeuvre easily around the software, giving access to social network sites, online videos and music. It also gives access to the video-conference service Skype, which allows users to see and speak to relatives for free via the internet, and is increasingly being used by pharmacists, psychiatrists and even GPs to consult with patients.

And, as the financial cuts put pressure on NHS services, the technology uses freely downloadable software that has the potential to relieve the strain on care-home assistants by providing ready-made activities for their elderly residents – everything from bingo to shopping.

Dr Peter Cudd, who began developing MAAVIS in 2006, Dr Peter Cudd, who began developing MAAVIS in 2006, says: ‘The vast majority of care-home managers are not IT-trained so we had to keep it simple. Each user can have a memory stick which costs less than £10 and on that they can keep photos, newspapers, songs, whatever it is that interests them. Each time they want to use the computer, they can just plug it in and have their own personal folders set up specifically for them.

‘MAAVIS opens up lots of opportunities for social interaction, but it also has more specific health benefits. People with dementia retain their language skills the longest so they can access songs or talk to family. They can still interact. For stroke victims we can put speech-therapy exercises on to their programme so they are backing up the work of the speech therapist to speed their recovery.’

Dr Cudd believes the software could be adapted not just for the elderly but also for physically and mentally disabled children, because its touch screen would allow more independence, and from an earlier age, than a conventional keyboard.

For further details, see this "Mail on Sunday" article.