Pillar Highlight: Live with Purpose

Another exciting opportunity to help residents Live It! through technology is Touchtown – a communications and engagement tool availableto residents at The Polaris Community and expanding to six additional UCH independent living communities. Its features are similar to those used by many hotels like digital signage in common areas, in-room TV guides and dynamic calendars. Touchtown allows UCH to share information with residents and their family members about upcoming events, news, menus, videos and more.

“We recently posted a happy birthday message to one of our residents on the digital sign in the lobby,” said UCH’s Director of Customer Experience Amy Kotterman. “We also used the sign to promote the Friday Happy Hour event which turned out to be a surprise birthday party for the resident.”

Touchtown can be used to send messages from staff to individual residents, or to all residents.

Residents can also access a wealth of information based on their personal interests: they can travel the world, participate in fitness classes and everything in between. Family members have their own app so they can exchange messages and stay well-informed about community activities.

“We plan to offer in-house TV channels to live stream community events,” said Kotterman.

Story Chain is another interesting initiative that allows friends, family members and others to read and record books of particular interest to individual residents. Bil Farrar, director of social services at The Trinity Community at Fairborn, learned about Story Chain from a neighbor. Originally developed for use in prisons and other settings in which individuals experience feelings of isolation, Story Chain is looking to expand in long-term care settings and senior communities. A small but generous grant recently allowed The Trinity Community at Fairborn resident Carolyn Ossege to receive a MP3 player with recorded readings of two books chosen especially for her: All Creatures Great and Small and Watership Down.

Carolyn Ossege smiles after having received her Story Chain mp3 player

“We recognize the many ways technology can enhance our residents’ lives,” Kotterman said.

“We’ve learned so much through these pilot programs, both before and during the pandemic. We remain fully committed to continued investments in technologies that help our residents Live it! with Purpose.”

Two residents at The Glenwood Community enjoy surfing the web after breakfast each morning in the pub