Using Video Conferencing to Stay Connected with the Elderly
Video conferencing technology was a growing application in health care even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and its use expanded greatly as the pandemic grew, facilities implemented rules on visitors, and doctors began conducting patient appointments via telehealth.
One area of health care that was particularly strict when it came to receiving visitors was nursing homes and senior living facilities. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the risk for severe illness with COVID-19 increases with age, with older adults at the highest risk. Protecting residents from the risk of infection became paramount.
Unfortunately, that meant visiting relatives who lived in such facilities was out of the question. Children were prevented from visiting parents, and grandparents were prevented from spending time with their grandchildren. Smartphones offered the ability to connect via video chat, but they often don't provide sufficient volume to be heard clearly, and their small screens can be challenging to see.
Although there's no substitute for human-to-human contact, video conferencing technology is helping to alleviate the loneliness that can stem from being deprived of a visit with family and friends by providing video calling for seniors that's easy to use. It's even being used to allow seniors to (virtually) join in on holiday meals and other family events. And while it may be challenging to determine the best video calling device for seniors, Yamaha Unified Communications offers technology that helps fill the bill.
At the Cornerstone at Milford Assisted Living & Compass Memory Support in Milford, Mass., for example, Yamaha UC helped residents stay connected with loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company donated a CS-700 Video Sound Bar to the facility as a way for residents who struggle to see and hear calls on smartphones and tablets to have a more comfortable and enjoyable audio and video experience.
The CS-700 is the perfect tool for helping a senior video chat with loved ones. It's designed to deliver the highest quality audio, video, and collaboration capabilities and is easy to install, deploy, and use. The wall-mounted unit features an adaptive beamforming microphone array for perfectly captured conversation, four Yamaha speaker elements to provide the highest degree of audio intelligibility, and a wide-angle HD camera for the far-end participants to see everyone in precise detail.
Building managers connect the system to a display and any UC platform via a single USB. The CS-700 is also Zoom certified, which simplifies the call experience even further by automatically detecting the CS-700, enabling mute sync, and enhancing the audio in the Zoom cloud, so background noise doesn't interfere with calls.
Video conferencing tools such as the CS-700 are assisting in other areas of health care as well. For those health care professionals who may have patients who live in remote areas, find it difficult to get to the doctor's office, or don't have conditions that require a face-to-face visit, videoconferencing is a great way to meet with those patients while fostering convenience and safety.
Yamaha UC's video conferencing tools are the perfect tool for creating a human connection when safety or distance is an issue. Check out these other inspirational stories of how Yamaha UC's technology aided in that connection.