Courtesy of GrandPad
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, St. Louis County Library,” a soulful voice sings on a recording. “GrandPad was a great decision. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
This is just one of the messages of gratitude—though it may be the only one in song format—that the St. Louis County Library has received about its GrandPad program, which launched in March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. GrandPads are tablets designed for older adults that come preloaded with software and 4G LTE so they’re able to access library materials, send and receive photos, video-call with loved ones, play games, and consume media (music from the 1940s is a popular choice). The tablet’s design makes it easier to navigate than a non-GrandPad tablet. And perhaps the most compelling feature: GrandPads operate on an encrypted private network, so they’re more secure and free from messages from scammers who might try to persuade someone to hand over private personal or banking info. (Where can the rest of us sign up?)
Research shows that about 25 percent of adults over the age of 65 were considered socially isolated before the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit and vulnerable people were advised to stay at home while a vaccine was developed, they became even lonelier. Amid the crisis, the County Library, St. Louis County’s Older Adult Commission, and Aging Ahead—the region’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA)—met to figure out a way to reach seniors in isolation.
“There were higher rates of failure to thrive,” remembers St. Louis County Library director and CEO Kristen Sorth. “Higher rates of suicide among seniors. When the County asked us, ‘Who are we missing?’ we said, ‘the seniors.’ That’s when we found this great product called GrandPads.”
Using funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, the County Library first purchased 1,500 GrandPads, and, when it saw them take off, another 1,500. Nearly 25,000 seniors in St. Louis County do not have a computer at home, and almost 35,000 seniors do not have a computer or internet, so the library focused on getting the devices to lower-income adults who didn’t have access to them already. Almost two years after the first GrandPads were distributed, the library surveyed users. Respondents said that the tablets allowed them to feel more connected (88 percent strongly agreed or agreed), improved overall quality of life (81 percent), and increased confidence with technology (81 percent). Some users returned their devices because they felt comfortable enough to purchase their own tablet.
GrandPads allow users to video-call loved ones, but they also let them safely connect with people beyond St. Louis. GrandPad users can play in Hearts tournaments or bingo games. Even the help desk affords some human connection. Push the help button, and the call is answered 24 hours a day by a real person—typically, same person each time.
_
Top Grandpad apps by usage—Internet: 191,316 hours; Solitaire: 34,802 hours; Bingo: 10,215 hours; Call: 9,032 hours; Word Scramble: 7,801 hours
“Users feel that it’s a very personal connection,” Sorth says about the people who staff the help desk. “They’re lovely people, and I think the GrandPad users call them a lot.” When St. Louis experienced flooding last July, GrandPad reached out to the library to inform them that their support team had called local GrandPad users to make sure they were safe.
After seeing success with the GrandPad program, the County Library and Aging Ahead are now working together on a virtual senior center model, or using federal funding to bring more services to the GrandPad platform. One way that senior centers receive federal dollars is through nutrition programs and providing meals, says Lisa Knoll, the CEO of Aging Ahead. To make a virtual senior center sustainable, Aging Ahead and the library are exploring how they can incorporate nutrition components—like healthy meal delivery—into the GrandPad program.
“We were all thrown into COVID and were trying to figure out how to meet needs and deal with isolation and all these people who are homebound,” Knoll says. “The new world of virtual programming—it’s clear that it’s not going away. It’s even picking up steam.”
There are options for older adults to connect in person, of course, but the virtual senior center model would allow for even more interaction for people who are homebound or who feel uncomfortable driving at night or driving period.
“Being lonely is not good when you’re getting older,” Sorth says. “It’s important to find places where they can connect that are safe and fun for them. I think it’s important that we try and make their world bigger, too, and we can do that through access to the internet.”
