“At first, as with most things, it seemed too good to be true…”
Stuart Davies, Home Manager at Plas Bryn Rhosyn in North Wales, has been using Famileo for over 3 years and finds it, in his own words, “fantastic”.
Every Monday, between 10:30am and 11a.m., he prints the personalised family newspapers and distributes them to his residents. Over a cup of tea and biscuits, he listens to the memories the newspaper, filled with photos from their families, evokes.
Famileo, Stuart says, “gives the residents something to look forward to” and has “brought a lot of smiles back”.
A Bridge between Generations.
By respecting different generations’ communication habits, Famileo bridges the digital divide by automatically formatting younger generations’ uploaded photos and messages into a ‘family newspaper’ that is then printed and given to the older relative to enjoy. Digital for the younger generations, paper for the resident.
Once a care home has subscribed to Famileo, residents’ family and friends can download the app on their smartphone, tablet, or computer, login to their unique family account and start easily and securely sharing photos and messages on their ‘family wall’. This collective family content is then automatically organised and edited as a personalised newspaper, or ‘gazette’, weekly. Each Monday, the care home receives the gazettes in PDF format which they can then print and distribute.
Famileo is a welcome complement to visits, phone calls, and video calls, as the gazettes provide residents with something tangible that they can pick up and reread at any time. It provides them with visual context to news they’re being told by their family.
And what do the families say about it? “It is brilliant, it is straight forward and so simple to use.” Caroline, whose mother is a resident at Plas Bryn Rhosyn, says.
And the residents? “I feel joy, I carry them with me daily, I feel secure having them with me”.
Famileo has now more than 1.5 million users around the world
The Magic of Famileo
The gazettes are a wonderful support for discussion between residents, their families, and staff.
Stuart explains; “We have a resident who had started to withdraw from everything and wasn’t as interactive with staff or residents, but when we introduced Famileo and he received his first gazette, he was able to see photos of his family and that sort of opened him up again. He started to initiate conversation with staff to show what his family have been doing. He was proud of them. Our residents like to share and compare their gazettes and discuss the different activities their grandchildren are doing.”
A Two-Way Communication Tool:
Care home staff can also use Famileo to send messages to the families.
“We use the Famileo dashboard to share more of the day to day life at the care home with the families, whether that be activities, the excursions, new staff members or a birthday. By including families and by sharing the valuable work of our team, the impact is wide-reaching since not only close relatives but also children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends of the residents feel closer to their older relative and more connected”.
Costs
Famileo starts at £45 per month for care homes with less than 50 residents.
For more information or to organise a free demo, please contact sales@famileo.com
Famileo website
