BRICA Conference Focuses on Seniors and Technology
On November 20th, over 100 people attended the BRICA conference Wired up Seniors: Technology and Aging. The day was marked by high quality presentations and wonderful support by the hosts Jewish Home Lifecare.
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. opened the proceedings, speaking about his enjoyment in figuring out how to use new technologies and his feeling that this process of discovery can be shared by seniors when there is proper training and support. He also eloquently articulated the duty for the current generation to appreciate the efforts of their forbears and to make sure they are well provided for.
Keynote speaker Tom Kamber of OATS spoke how technology has the potential to significantly impact the lives of seniors and help them stay connected and involved with the larger community. He suggested we focus on the issues that matter and provide the support needed to make this transition truly meaningful (Tom’s presentation was recorded - see http://www.seniorplanet.org/staging/node/1251 ). Abby Stokes our luncheon speaker reviewed the rapid growth of seniors in social networking sites. She suggested that providers could utilize these trends to publicize their activities and engage seniors as part of both their in person and on-line community.
The workshops were dense with information. Topics included:
- Healthy Aging Initiatives and Technology - presented by Debbie Bobe, Galina Vaysman and Sheila Colombani of Jewish Home Lifecare. It included a review of “Telehealth” technologies which facilitates the connection between health providers and clients at home. For example, using a product called Health Buddy, patients answer a series of daily questions about their health and well being. The data is sent over a telephone line to the providers who can determine the patient’s status and enable early intervention before a patient’s condition becomes acute. Due to the importance and high interest in this workshop, it was presented during both sets of workshops.
- Technology to Improve Service Delivery and Increase Program Participation - included three presenters; Joshua Peskay of Fund for the City of NY, Abby Stokes and myself. I began with a review of the implications for small non-profits of “cloud computing” and related technologies that take advantage of the Internet as the new platform (such as Google apps). Joshua focused on the issues of technology planning for organizations of all sizes and then he and Abby responded to a series of concerns from participants related to issues of social networking and privacy.
- Community Technology Resources for Seniors - included presentations by Jennifer Engstrom from the NYC public library and Reeva Mager from Dorot. Jennifer spoke about the range of technology related services and Internet access offered by the public libraries. Reeva presented about Dorot’s teleconference programs that enable those with limited mobility to join in in a range of educational offerings from their home, through the telephone
- Creating a More Senior Friendly Technology - focused on defining key design principles involved in making a technology “senior friendly.” I reviewed various communication services targeted to the senior market such as the Jitterbug phone, PawPawMail, BigScreenLive and It’s Never Too Late. Extracting some of the design principals employed on in these products/services, we compared their interface to the iphone and discussed how this transformational device and others like it could easily be made more senior friendly. Abby spoke about the key design features in making a senior friendly website and how to involve program participants to your on-line offerings.
- Setting Up and Successfully Managing a Computer Lab for Seniors - John Figuerora of OATS a veteran in setting up senior centers presented the key issues involved in successfully managing this type of service.
Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, chair of the Aging Committee visited the workshops to inform participants about the state’s deficits and the need for senior providers to understand and react to probable upcoming budget cut pressures.
Beyond the specifics, and the high quality of the presentations, it was noteworthy and encouraging to see so much interest related technology and seniors. To those of us who have been involved in the field, it’s exciting to see a shift in public interest and the growing recognition in private firms of the potential in this market.
A special thanks to Jewish Home Lifecare for use of their wonderful facilities the tremendous support of the staff. They ensured that the conference was a success.