30 Nov Older adults exchange with service providers in Amadora
As part of the Pharaon Services On Demand action, the first face-to-face sessions were held on the 12th and 19th of September. This action aims to promote healthy and active aging by ensuring a safe and comfortable environment through technology, namely through the facilitation of access to proximity services by allowing the older adults to order goods and services from local providers. The older adults had previously had their first contact with the service providers online through the Sentab app, with the providers being challenged to post a video on their accounts introducing themselves and talking a little about their business and what they did.
Since this was the first face-to-face contact between them, the older adults planned a musical performance to welcome the professionals and to showcase the kind of activities that they do at the Day Care Centres. Considering that it wasn’t possible to bring the two-day care centres together for a first joint session, the idea arose of organising two separate days, but with the same objective: to make this face-to-face meeting possible in order to create a relationship and build trust to facilitate the interaction and engagement of the participants throughout the pilot.
These were very enriching and dynamic sessions, as there was plenty of sharing of stories and experiences, which gave the older adults the opportunity to reminisce on past memories. The diversity of professional areas in these sessions was what made this positive dynamic possible and increased the interest of the older adult, enabling them to share their own knowledge and expertise on a plethora of topics. At the end of these sessions, the older adults were curious to meet these service providers again and really get to know their work and the services they provide, proving these sessions to be very fruitful ones for the future success of the pilot.