CCSS launches tablet program for seniors

Continuing the push to help seniors stay connected with their community, Crook County Senior Services (CCSS) has secured five iPad tablets that can be loaned out for as long as a senior would like to use them. Useful for everything from contacting loved ones to reading the news, the tablets were obtained through a federal program administered by the Wyoming Department of Health.

“We can rent them out five at a time and they can use them as long as they want for grocery shopping, medical appointments, playing games – whatever they want,” says Jenna Ellsbury, Director of CCSS.

At this time, all the iPads are spoken for. The tablets were distributed last week and will remain with their first five users until they are no longer needed or wanted.

When that happens, they will be available for their next owners – but only once the Department of Health has done all the necessary work to protect the personal data of their current users.

“When they are done with it, we submit it to the Department of Health, they wipe it clean and then they give it back to us to recycle to the next senior,” Ellsbury says.

“It’s really nice because then we know their information is wiped off properly.”

Because many seniors have never before made use of a tablet, or don’t feel confident they would know how to set one up, the Department of Health has pre-prepared each device to make sure it has as many apps of interest as possible already installed.

“They went through and customized each iPad,” Ellsbury nods.

The iPads come preinstalled, for example, with Wyoming Public Radio, medication apps, news, Apple TV, memory games to stimulate the mind, FaceTime to contact loved ones and weather alerts. They are also issued with instruction booklets to help users get used to how they work.

“There are a lot of applications they have on here that are unique to our seniors. It has everything ready to go,” Ellsbury said.

Crook was initially the only Wyoming county that applied for the grant, Ellsbury said. She suspects this may have something to do with the support offered by the County Commissioners last year, which allowed CCSS to apply for CARES Act funding to secure devices that create mobile hotspots, which can be utilized by seniors to access the internet in more remote parts of the county.

“A lot of seniors around the state could get these tablets, but have no internet,” says Ellsbury. “Because the commissioners already allocated funds for these mobile hotpacks, we were able to give them to the seniors too, so they have both the tablets and the internet to utilize them.”

The iPads are here to stay, Ellsbury says, and she would like to hear from any senior who might be interested in taking custody of one in the future.

“They want to have special emphasis on socially isolated seniors,” she says. There are no particular financial requirements, she says, so, in a rural county like Crook, it’s easy to argue that a high proportion of seniors qualify.

“After the first initial wave, when we start getting returns, we can wipe them clean and we can circulate them again, so we can get a waiting list going,” she says, inviting anyone interested in that waiting list to contact her office.

If the iPads prove popular, Ellsbury hopes to secure additional devices for Crook County. The Department of Health has already purchased the iPads using the federal funds so, if demand continues to be low around the state, it may be possible to request more.

The mobile hotspots are also still available for approximately a year with the current funding. Ellsbury would like to continue to offer them once the CARES Act grant has elapsed, but this will be dependent on future funding possibilities.