E-mail and SMS simplify contacts with nursing homes

Family members want to use SMS and e-mail messages to reach and maintain contact with personnel working with home-help services and the care of the elderly. These are some of the findings of a survey that TeliaSonera has conducted to poll 6,000 private persons and 250 municipal decision-makers all over Sweden.

Forty percent of the persons responding to the survey stated that they would like to use e-mail to maintain contact with personnel working at nursing homes. Just as many people polled in the survey said they would like to receive news and information from the nursing home via a homepage on the Internet. More than 20 percent responded that they, as a family member, wanted to be able to contact personnel in home-help services and elderly care by using the SMS service. “It is already clear today that family members want to reach and maintain contact with personnel in home-help services and nursing homes in a simple manner by sending and receiving e-mail and SMS messages. Increased usage of modern communication services in the care sector can simplify day-to-day life for many and also help municipalities save money,” says Indra Åsander, head of the consumer segment at TeliaSonera Sweden. Computers and web cameras at nursing homes According to the survey, ordinary Swedes are more interested in maintaining contacts electronically than decision-makers in municipalities. To facilitate communications with family members in care facilities for the elderly, 27 percent of the respondents would like to see computers installed at nursing homes to exchange e-mail, for example, with family members. Fifteen percent was very interested in being able to talk to family members at care facilities via a web camera. Internet café for the elderly The assisted care facility at Tors backe in Sollentuna, just north of Stockholm, is planning to open an Internet café in January. This will probably be the one of the first Internet cafés for the elderly in Sweden. About the survey TeliaSonera Sweden polled 6,000 private persons to get their opinion, as a family member, about communicating electronically with home-help services and elderly care/nursing home facilities. Corresponding questions were put to 250 decision-makers in municipalities all over Sweden. The entire report is available (in Swedish only) at www.teliasonera.se under "Press”.