Devices/advice supporting elderly & less able to stay connected without home internet

[northernladuk]

Funnily enough I'm right in the middle of trying to set up an old Galaxy Tab2 10.1 for the MiL to Skype and do yoga at home etc. Tablet is so slow it's driving my nuts but I am sure it will do for MiL.

Any chance you can put a call out to anyone that has very old tablets they think are worthless and re-use? Slow as hell but will suffice I am sure.

Doh. No Internet. Missed that sorry.

[cojak]

I think the village has fibre so it depends on the neighbours but definitely worth checking. You can't go knocking on doors but we might post letters, or round here people tend to know their neighbours.

Definitely an easy option where possible.
A 4G dongle is another one, plus a cheap tablet, as long as the dongle is reliable. In my experience they sometimes need a kick. We're already thinking we need to just tell people the tablet "needs to be left plugged in all the time" to avoid them going flat, and provide a very long lead. Every possible problem we can avoid is going to make things easier.

Is there anything you can do with a Raspberry PI setup?

I would be happy to donate a Raspberry Pi II as it's sitting under my telly collecting dust (PM me for it Doogie).

Shoutout to Zigenare or Simonmac - they know their stuff with RPs.

[d000hg]

What is the internet speed like in your village? Would sharing wireless work with the people that are already connected? Obviously there would need to be a level.of trust there. But if they don't have the internet already, they probably won't be using it a lot anyway and very unlikely to do anything nefarious.

I think the village has fibre so it depends on the neighbours but definitely worth checking. You can't go knocking on doors but we might post letters, or round here people tend to know their neighbours.

Definitely an easy option where possible.
A 4G dongle is another one, plus a cheap tablet, as long as the dongle is reliable. In my experience they sometimes need a kick. We're already thinking we need to just tell people the tablet "needs to be left plugged in all the time" to avoid them going flat, and provide a very long lead. Every possible problem we can avoid is going to make things easier.

[doconline]

What is the internet speed like in your village? Would sharing wireless work with the people that are already connected? Obviously there would need to be a level.of trust there. But if they don't have the internet already, they probably won't be using it a lot anyway and very unlikely to do anything nefarious.

[ladymuck]

Haven't got a scooby but what a great initiative.

[d000hg]

I'm part of a village church of around 30 members, about 50:50 people in their 20s-30s and 65-90. We have a good community and the older folk have phones but being cramped up inside for months is not going to be good for some in particular.
We've been trialling Zoom for church and social meetings and it does support dial-in but if you can see someone in front of you it's so much more 'real'.
Some of our older members have no home internet at all and we are trying to figure out how we might a)provide a suitable device b)make sure they can use it

Tablets with SIM cards all seem expensive, we had wondered about low-end Android phones with say a GiffGaff SIM paid for by the church but a small tablet might be preferable if we can find an affordable one - any tips?

And then, are there any ways we can set these devices up for remote control? I know you can on a PC but the remote control app itself needs to be easy. We'd buy the devices and do all we can to make them require as little user-input as possible. Of course checking people are happy with privacy implications.

If anyone here can draw on their tech knowledge, or maybe is doing similar for elderly relatives or knows any parallels in care industry, please share. We have a few single people in their 70s-80s with no real family outside the church. We can provide food and phone them up but gathering together on Sunday morning is central to some peoples' routine and they've been doing it for 50+ years, and we're worried about them.

Thanks in advance.