Tablets donated to HealthWise and Senior Services
Thanks to generous funding from The Robertson and Copley Fund for the Elderly and Chronically Ill, the Community-Engaged Learning initiative Beyond Clinic Walls has donated 20 tablets to the HealthWise program and Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia to advance technology education and support independent living.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many older adults found themselves without the technology skills to stay connected virtually to family, friends and community. To help offset the risk of social isolation, a group of collaborating community partners—Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia, Primeplus Senior Centers, Westminster-Canterbury, the Birdsong Foundation and the EVMS Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology—developed the HealthWise Connectivity Project, or “HealthWise.” Since 2020, EVMS students in Beyond Clinic Walls and Students for the Advancement of Geriatric Education (S.A.G.E.) have served as volunteer coaches, teaching participants how to use WiFi, Zoom, Telehealth, email, the Birdsong App and more.
Donated tablets, which will be used as part of the initiative, were presented on June 22 in the Glennan Center. Pictured above (from left): Marissa Galicia-Castillo, MD, MSEd (MD’97, Internal Medicine Residency ’00), the John Franklin Distinguished Chair for Geriatrics and Director of the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Madeline Dunstan, MS, Associate Director of Education for the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and Instructor of Internal Medicine, George Jones, MD Class of 2025, Steve Zollos, CEO for Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia and Lucille Fyfe, HealthWise Program Manager for Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia.
Prior projects spearheaded by Beyond Clinic Walls and supported by The Robertson and Copley Fund for the Elderly and Chronically Ill include the on-campus 2020 Technology Exposition and the 2021 Virtual EXPO.