Many of us have parents or close relatives we need to care for, who live in a different city. Although they may have their own informal support network, meeting day to day needs can be a challenge. Online shopping does solve part of the problem, as does video chatting and messaging.
Sometimes issues that are not routine crop up and are difficult to manage remotely by other family members trying to help. Aging parents/relatives are also not always the most tech-savvy. The current situation with COVID-19 has made things more difficult for everyone involved. Examples of some of the issues that families face while trying to support their loved ones remotely, are
urgent need for additional house help
medical need for assistance in the house, or assistance with visits to clinics
smaller day-to-day tasks like buying bakery items, groceries or getting medication from pharmacies in the area
healthy home cooked meals
How can a family who lives away, access information from their parents/relatives locality in order to better manage the situation from afar ? What if urgent help is required from their neighborhood, as their informal support network is unreachable or out of town ? What if the need of the hour is to reach out to their locality, beyond traditional connections ? But how do you securely reach out to someone in the vicinity whom you can trust ?
Project Vishram
There is a need for cost effective assisted independent living for elders in their own homes. The growing ageing community prefers to remain integrated in society instead of isolation in Old Age Homes or Retirement Communities or depend on others including family members.
Project Vishram is a securely managed private local group on the Ripple platform. Members of the private group consist of
Managers/Volunteers - who provide assistance to local elders in their vicinity
Elders - who can securely reach out for trusted help to managers/volunteers in their vicinity
Relatives of Elders - who are in a remote location but can securely reach out for trusted help to managers//volunteers in the vicinity of their elderly relatives on their behalf.
Find out how Ripple as a platform has enabled this social initiative.
1) Registration / onboarding
Elders, relatives of Elders, managers and volunteers need to download the Ripple App
Find out How Ripple Works
Send an email to thomsv@gmail.com or whatsapp +919945926448 to request to join Project Vishram. Find out more about Project Vishram.
Admins will then add the elders, relatives, managers and volunteers to the securely managed 'Project Vishram' private group.
2) Follow 'Project Vishram' to receive local posts from the vicinity
Members can receive posts from other 'Project Vishram' members in the vicinity, by following the 'Project Vishram' tag in the 'Trends' section. Click on 'Follow my tags' or click on the 'Project Vishram' tag itself.
A user can choose their locality range by moving the range slider icon. Specific members can be followed even when the 'Project Vishram' tag is unfollowed, to always receive their posts.
3) Elders reach out for assistance
Elders can reach out to managers / volunteers in the vicinity for assistance by pressing the red 'Assist' button on the Ripple App. This will automatically send a message to managers / volunteers in the vicinity who will then get back to the Elders to find out the details and accordingly provide assistance. Their status icon will also indicate that they need assistance.
Elders can indicate that they are doing well today by pressing the blue 'Am OK' button. This will automatically send a message to managers / volunteers in the vicinity that they are hale and healthy. Their status icon will also indicate that they are OK. The 'Am OK' status will remain for 1 day and reset after this time elapses. If the elder has not pressed the blue 'Am OK' button for more than a day than this could indicate an issue and the managers / volunteers in the vicinity can reach out to them.
Elders can also specifically post local messages using the 'Project Vishram' tag to securely reach out for trusted help to managers / volunteers in their vicinity. Posts from Elders cannot be seen by other Elders in the vicinity, but can be seen only by other managers/volunteers.
4) Volunteers/managers provide secure trusted assistance
For security purposes, only certified managers can view posts of Elders in the vicinity and can respond to them. The chat explicitly indicates the role of the Manager and Elder.
5) Trust and safety
Trust is addressed as follows:
Users can 'rate' a post for the benefit of others in the locality, by clicking on the Ripple icon. Individual post's rating add up to provide a 'profile rating' for the user. Profile details can be seen by clicking on the 'profile rating'. Profile details include the overall users feedback on a users posts and conversations. The stats also show number of followers and users that are blocking that person.
The feedback (ratings) on individual member's posts with the 'project vishram' tag add to the overall rating of the tag. This will give users reassurance and trust in 'project vishram' based on the rating.
Safety is addressed as follows
You don’t need to share your phone number or personal details with others, in order to really be an integral part of your neighborhood with access to everything it has to offer.
You can follow or block others depending on your personal interactions with them.
You can view ratings linked to group owners/admin or services/products before you decide to interact with them. Feedback given by others is invaluable in enabling a safe interaction.
An elder reaching out for help will only be connected with certified managers or volunteers of 'project vishram' in the locality. Each post clearly indicates if the author of the post is a certified manager or not. Knowing that you are talking to a certified manager will reassure the elder that the interaction is safe and trustworthy.
Issues can be reported to Admins in case of escalations.
6) Family of elders can remotely reach out for assistance on behalf of their elderly relatives
You can post on your parents or relatives behalf for their various local needs, especially if they are not tech-savvy. Set your parents or relatives 'location' on whose behalf you are posting for assistance. Click the 'icon' to set their locality on a map, if it is not set from before or you need to change it. Create a post by appropriately tagging it with 'project vishram' to securely reach trusted managers and volunteers in the locality who can provide assistance.
7) Managers/Admins will proactively monitor status of elders in their vicinity
Elders can press the red 'Help' button if assistance is required. They can press the blue 'Am OK' button to indicate that they are doing fine. Pressing the button automatically sends out a message to managers / volunteers in the vicinity and also updates their status. The 'Am OK' status will remain for 1 day and reset after this time elapses. If the elder has not pressed the blue 'Am OK' button for more than a day than this could indicate an issue and the managers / volunteers in the vicinity can reach out to them.
The status of all members can be proactively monitored via the Manage Tags option. This gives a consolidated view of which members need assistance and which members have marked themselves as hale and healthy in the past 24 hours. If a member has not updated their 'Am OK' status then their status will show as yellow 'Away'.
In the example above, two elders have marked themselves as 'Am OK', one needs assistance and two have not updated their status in the past day.
