Bringing the outside in through facilitated communication technology in long term care: How do facilitated, virtual communication sessions provide opportunities for social engagement and participant well-being?

This paper aims to explore the effect of virtual communication opportunities on the opinions and communication styles of older adults who live in a long-term care (LTC) setting in Ireland. The paper has been developed from a pre-and postintervention study during which older adults took part in a facilitated, virtual communication intervention, delivered once per week over a four-week period. While the pre-and post-intervention study provides the scaffold for envisaging changes in the communication styles of older adults in long term residential care, the overarching purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology, as a conduit for bringing the outside world to the lived residential world of the residents gave agency to their respective voices and opinions in a meaningful, anchored communication context. Ten residents participated in semi-structured interviews before and after four weeks of once-per-week virtual talks delivered via an online platform. The interviews provided a means by which residents’ opinions, experiences and perceptions pertaining to the use of technology for engaging with topics of interest and facilitating social interaction could be gauged. Interviews were transcribed and then analysed from a phenomenological perspective. The residents’ initial interviews revealed themes of ‘wellbeing in LTC’, ‘risks to wellbeing’, ‘social engagement’, ‘reminiscing about the past’, ‘curiosity’ and a ‘dearth of experience with technology’. After experiencing communication through technology, resident interviews reflected themes such as ‘a break from routine’, ‘forming new ties’, ‘technology for learning and wellbeing in LTC’, and its use to ‘augment personal choice and autonomy’ in such settings. Based on participants’ lived experience and the themes which emerged in the interviews after the technological communications, there is potential for the facilitated use of technology to mitigate social isolation which can arise in such settings, and provide opportunities for common ground, choice-making and forming new ties.