'Silver surfers' should be listened to. 24 February 2012Last updated at 08:29 Older people are increasingly 'web-savvy' As patients' interaction with the health service increasingly moves online, it is easy to assume that the voices of the elderly will be lost along the way.
But in this week's Scrubbing Up, Dr Paul Hodgkin of the feedback site Patient Opinion, says social media channels are not just for the young. The stories that elderly people tell us have huge power. The Nominet Trust £250k Challenge. The Nominet Trust £250k Challenge support projects that address the recommendations set out in our second State of the Art Review: ‘The internet and an ageing population’, written by Prof Christine Milligan and Dr Don Passey.
In particular, we're looking to invest in projects that work with older people (65+) to: use the internet to address specific social problems facing older people; design new and better ways for older people to access and use the internet; and develop and use technologies familiar to older people that may have internet functionality such as projects that use IPTV or internet radio. Geraldine Bedell, editor of Gransnet tells us why they are supporting this challenge: "As the fastest-growing group of digital and social media users, older people can build on their own online experience to provide better services to people of their own age. DropBy - A web site for the over 60s and their families to keep in touch, focusing on interaction - with family, friends and local interest groups.