With Australians aged over 70 being strongly advised by the Federal Government to remain at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Global Centre for Modern Ageing researcher Amelia McCabe stepped in to help her 82 year old grandad sort out online grocery shopping.
Armed with a computer, email and his tech knowledge, Amelia’s grandad just needed some support to set up his account and place his first online order. Using safe social distancing, Amelia gave her grandfather Brian a hand by talking him through the process on the phone and logging into online shopping in tandem so they could view the products and processes together.
As shown on Amelia’s video of the experience, she learnt a few things along the way herself - for one, her grandfather will no longer need to resort to asking one of his neighbours to do his shopping and “chucking it over the fence” as he jokingly mentioned he might do.
Now he is a fully fledged online shopper, Brian will even be able to purchase the first thing that popped up on the list of available items - toilet paper!
Amelia wanted to be supportive and lend a hand but was conscious not to “take over” from her highly capable grandfather. As she says of her grandfather: “You used to tie a safety line to my canoe so I didn’t venture out of my depth. Now it’s time to shop online so the internet becomes your safety net.”
The GCMA invites you to share your experiences with us of changes you have needed to navigate during this unprecedented time. What has worked well for you so far? And what has not?
As an organisation committed to improving the lives of older people around the world, we are gathering information to inform businesses, industries and governments of potential changes to products and services that could improve quality of life now and into the future.
If you would like to share your insights, we invite you to get in touch with our researchers via email at covidsurvey@gcma.net.au or click here to take part in our short online survey.
