Royal Freemasons rolls out Swift tech

Victorian aged care and retirement living provider Royal Freemasons has completed the rollout of Swift Network’s entertainment and engagement platform at Coppin Centre in Melbourne.

The tech aims to help enhance internal and external communications and the resident experience at the 220-room aged care home (pictured above).

Royal Freemasons chief operating officer Sharyn McIlwain said it was a seamless implementation undertaken in partnership by the Swift and Royal Freemason teams.

“There was training, not only for our staff but training for the residents and their families. There is a lot of a lot of technology there that the families can use to upload photos and so on of their loved ones,” Ms McIlwain told Australian Ageing Agenda.

This includes the My Family My Community app that staff, residents and family members can use to share photos and videos. This ability to improve engagement for residents along with better communication capabilities, such as the broadcasting of daily activities, are among the many benefits, Ms McIlwain said.

The rollout sees Swift Broadcast, which includes spcecially curated items for aged care, such as low-sensory content to assist with dementia care and age-specific exercise classes like chair yoga, primarily being offered within the home’s specialist dementia care rooms. And Swift Access, which includes the latest movies, shows, classical cinema, live music performances and concerts on demand, provided to all other residents and in common areas.

Ms McIlwain said the range of options available for the home’s aged care cohort really appealed to her.

“[That includes] multi-language radio stations, multi-language movies and television shows, and free-to-air television and the ability for families to interact and upload photos. There’s trivia, exercises, and we can put announcements over on the screen so that people know when the next activity is running, and so on,” she said.

Swift chief executive officer Brian Mangano said the organisation aimed to help providers turn facilities into highly engaged and inclusive communities.

“The team at Royal Freemasons has been very clear of what they were looking to achieve, and we are very pleased that our product portfolio can support them in achieving their objectives.”

Ms McIlwain said they “definitely plan to” roll it out to their other sites. In addition to improving the resident experience, the technology also improves the visitor experience – which makes visiting more appealing, she said.

“It can be a long time visiting a loved one in aged care when perhaps they can’t communicate like they used to. If you’ve got photos that you can talk about or scrolling around it’s a much better journey. And to have trivia and games and things like that on the screen so grandchildren can engage is a positive thing,” Ms McIlwain said. “It makes it a good visit. It’s not just sitting there looking at the walls.”

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