Program promotes social connection

A pilot of a successful digitally-enabled social inclusion initiative from Italy has just launched in Victoria to deliver interactive activities for aged care residents such chair-based yoga and following the journey of a guide dog puppy in training.

The National Centre for Healthy Ageing – an integrated healthcare research, development and implementation hub based at Monash University – together with the university, public health service Peninsula Health, and the Amplifon Foundation launched the “Ciao!” Program in Australia at Carrum Downs Aged Care last Thursday.  

The model – which has been successfully trialled overseas – aims to reduce loneliness and social isolation by providing aged care residents positive experiences through digitally-enabled social connection.

The pilot – delivered under the NCHA Living Labs program and based on the success of Amplifon Foundation’s “Ciao!” Program – will initially provide six aged care homes in Melbourne with residents from different areas and cultural communities with live interactive content via a teleconference system and large 80-inch screens.

Monash University’s Professor Terry Haines said the screens and program offered an exciting opportunity to enhance engagement among residents within aged care facilities and between different facilities.

“The Ciao Project will help residents of aged care facilities to not only connect with a range of physically and mentally stimulating content at their facility, but to also engage with residents enjoying the same content at other facilities,” Professor Terry Haines told Australian Ageing Agenda. 

“This is where live, video-conferenced content provision can really elevate the experience beyond what can be delivered as either passive content, for example movies, or content that is delivered only at a single site,” said Professor Haines – who is head of Monash University’s School of Primary and Allied Health Care.

In addition to yoga and puppy training, the interactive activities also include virtual travel and therapeutic gardening.

NCHA director Professor Velandai Srikanth said unlike passive content, residents can engage with the person delivering the virtual tour or speak with the person delivering the exercise program to seek clarification and ask questions.

We know that loneliness in aged care centres is widespread, and so I’m excited to see the launch of this “Ciao!”’ Program in Australia, and to view firsthand the impact, enjoyment and social inclusion possibilities it will have for those living in residential aged care.”

Since being launched in Italy in 2020 – at the height of the pandemic – to address residents’ prolonged isolation, facilitate ongoing connection with families and provide entertainment and recreation, the Amplifon Foundation’s “Ciao!” Program has supported residents in more than 230 nursing homes in Italy and Portugal.

Amplifon Foundation managing director Maria Cristina Ferradini said they are starting the program in Australia after successful experiences first in Italy and then in Portugal.

“This initiative demonstrates how, thanks to the virtuous combination of new technologies and creativity, it’s possible to create new opportunities for relationships and social inclusion for older adults, especially those in nursing homes.”

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