Hayylo brightens your day

Leila Bellchambers 89 resident of Tyler Villiage Prospect Vale

APRIL 2017 | David Claridge

PEOPLE UNABLE to keep in touch with family members in aged care homes will now be able to simply use their smart phone or tablet to communicate.

A new app tailored for aged care homes called ‘hayylo’ has been trialled at Tyler Village with positive results.

Island Care Social Care Manager, Sue Atkinson, explains how they have been using the app at their eight facilities in Tasmania and Victoria.

“We have been using it for a year. Simon, who is one of the co-founders of hayylo from Melbourne, approached me about using hayylo for volunteers and to test a new app. It’s very much like Facebook but it is secure and only within the organisation,” Ms Atkinson said.

Using an iPad, the social care staff can connect to hayylo and record or take a picture of something a resident is doing and can post it to the resident. It will then filter out to all the family members that are connected. It works both ways so that the family members can reply however they want.

“We’ve had the family of a resident living out of Australia. His great grandchild has been born and the staff can show him pictures and videos through hayylo.

“We performed a trial last year where 60 residents and their families participated.  After that, 24 opted to continue using it.

“It’s the ones that live interstate or overseas that can really benefit from hayylo and it only costs $5.00 per month.

A new aspect to be used in the future is the ability to print the stored pictures from a resident which can be used as a Christmas present or in the unfortunate time of their passing as a keepsake for their families.

For further information visit www.hayylo.com.

Photo | Mike Moores