Grandaids

Ann - I have never been technically proficient, I will have to say. My friend likes to think of me as one of the last victorians, not meaning the state but the age. So if I don't feel comfortable using these devices, I can get very upset. Fortunately my age care providers told me about Grandaids who would come to your house and help older people with any technical problems they were having. To me it was just a perfect solution to have a real person come and sit beside me, talk to me and tell me what to do step by step and then she gave me a copy of that so i could double check. It was kinda like having a lesson plan at the end to go through. That why I thought it was a god sent having this service, I thought wow I can just call it hard to say how much of a difference it has made.

Peter and Juliet - The technology side we didn’t know much about, there was no one there to teach us much either. Your kids did it but grudgingly they’d say and laugh “I’ve shown you this once” and you’d say “oh ok, hang on” so the kids don't help you at all. Then when I heard about Grandaids when I was listening to the radio one day, it was just perfect for what I needed and I rang that day. The number one thing for me is communication with family, you can get FaceTime with the children and the other thing is the television. I've had TV technicians around here and they explain everything so quickly then wonder out, then we think wow we paid a fortune for this stuff and none of it works. Georgie at Grandaids spent the time and set Netflix up for us, she fine tuned it better and worked well for people like us. We just need those simple steps. It's very much independent living and it's very empowering. That's where Grandaids are great, it's an education and I even think our kids have been impressed about how our skills have improved. We don't need to ask them for help anymore.

John - There’s always something new and you've got to keep up with what's going on. I belong to an era where you went down the post office with two pennies and a lady answered you on the phone and connected you to whom you wish to speak to. Now we have gone from that to the most complicated system. I just didn't use the phone, if you wanted to get to me you’d have to ring the landline or meet me in the street. That was the best hope they had. I was isolated, so I looked for some aid and Grandaids popped up. To have a young lady come in, sit down and say ok lets do this slowly to show you where you have gone wrong, to rehearse it again and then at the end of the day say i'll just make these notes. You just need somebody to take you by the hand and lead you gradually through the system so that we learn at our pace. I put the mobile phone in my pocket now and know when it rings I don’t have to panic and it isn’t a fortune but it brings you into the 21st Century and that's a nice place to be.

Peter says: After doing training courses with Grandaids I have also required ongoing support. The online sessions I have had were recorded so you can refer back to it. No question is too silly. I would use them again and recommend to anyone wanting to learn about technology and the devices we use.

In my working life I delegated alot of office technology to other staff members so I did 6x 1 hour training packages with Grandaids to learn how to do things for myself. They brought up to speed with my phone, computer and smart TV. They also helped my wife with how to process images for social media and family. I would recommend to anyone.