Care home residents use iPads to spy on family and cheat on crosswords

Climb every mountain, check out your family’s house and look up the answers to tricky crossword puzzles, that’s what care home residents are using iPads to do, thanks to technology lessons.

90-year-old great grandmother Joy Storey has just completed a virtual climb of Mount Everest and checked up on the home of her daughter during iPad classes at Penpergwm House care home in Abergavenny.

The retired medical secretary, who owns her own iPad, said: “I like searching for answers for the impossible clues in the newspaper crossword. I love Google Earth – do you know you can sit at the top of a mountain?

"Last week I was up Mount Everest and the week before that Mount Helena. I’ve found my way to my niece’s house in Massachusetts. I just love standing on that yellow line in the road, you can go anywhere.”

The pleasure she gets from her iPad is also the result of a card game app ‘Patience’.

“It can keep me up at night sometimes,” the great grandmother admitted.

“I wouldn’t want to be without it now – it’s a way of getting outside. It is more difficult going out on my own now and it gives me freedom. “I use it for emails because I have a niece living in Massachusetts and another in Scotland. It’s for family mostly and obviously friends.”

Some of the tech-savvy residents have become involved in the production of The Penpergwm Paper; a monthly newspaper for circulation between residents and their friends and family. The editorial team of residents, which include 82-year-old editor Joy Seaton, meets fortnightly to discuss content ideas such as ‘Thought of the month’, ‘poetry corner’ and Care Home news.

Activity coordinators at Penpergwm House, a member of Care Forum Wales, launched the weekly iPad classes to familiarise residents with touch-screen technology and social media communication. The classes help residents improve their hand mobility and dexterity by manipulating the touch screen. It also stimulates their brain and memory with the help of mind teaser games and the greater social interaction gained between residents and their external family.

"I’ve never actually shopped online and filled a basket before. This is one of the things the class is going to help me with. I’d like to get some new clothes at the beginning of spring without having to depend on other people.

“I think the classes are wonderful. So many of the residents have never used the technology before, now they’re getting used to it,” said Joy.