Grandpal - the person-centred care company and platform
by Startacus Admin
We take a look at Grandpal, the startup that is helping Nursing Homes connect with locals who want to use their spare time doing good!
We wrote recently in our article about Tovertafel that people living in care homes often find only their physical health cared for and not their mental health. Lack of activities and stimulation leads to apathy, which leads more easily to isolation and loneliness. In this way, mental health can quickly and easily deteriorate, and physical health with it. Too many care homes think that turning on the TV or radio - or both - is the way to keep the residents occupied and to give them company, and even if family visits every day, that bit of interaction is not enough to keep a human being happy and stimulated; unfortunately, not every resident of a care home has someone to visit them.
Dublin- and Berlin-based Grandpal’s mission is to ensure that every resident of a care home who would benefit from a regular, weekly visit from someone in their local community, receives one.
The ‘Pals’ visit residents to relieve pressure from staff and keep residents company with anything from a chat to a day out. The idea is not just to sit and talk, unless that is what the resident wants, but to play a game, take part in activities like arts and crafts, or go out and about for the day.
These Pals are vetted by both Grandpal and the care home. After filling out the application form, they have to have a phone interview, provide ID for vetting, have another interview with the care home, and then go through training both online and with the care home. In this way, you can be sure that only those who are entirely committed to these visits will become a Pal.
We’re all getting old, and wouldn’t it be nice to know that even when we’re sitting in a care home relying on other people, that people like this will be around to visit us and push us about in our wheelchairs? Not that we’ll necessarily need wheelchairs, but the Pals don’t need to know that, do they?
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Published on: 14th July 2019
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