Movement provides tablets for hospitalized patients to communicate with their families

To combat the isolation of hospitalized patients, unable to receive visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic, a movement in Portugal was created to provide the patients with a means of communicating with their loved-ones. The movement aims to donate 2500 tablets to healthcare facilities around the country, to be used by patients who don’t have other means of communicating with their families.

According to the movement’s website, they are guided by 4 main goals:
- Combat isolation by promoting contact between patients and their loved-ones
- Promote communication through video conferences, allowing for a richer connection through non-verbal communication
- Lowering anxiety levels for patients and family
- Provide a means for loved-ones to give emotional support to patients

The tablets donated have a software especially developed for the movement, with a user-friendly interface that is easy to used even by patients that are not very familiar with this type of technology.

To make sure that the tablets fulfill their purpose, they will be the property of the hospitals and not the patients, with the hospitals being in charge of distributing the equipments between the patients. The tablets will also have other apps blocked, so they cannot be used for other purposes.

The project was started by Luísa Machado, Cândida Santos and André Jacques, at the request of several healthcare professionals. They have since turned the project into a non-profit association they called Semeiabraços and have gathered the support of several other organizations.

Adapted from: https://estou.org/sobre_nos.php

More information: https://estou.org/

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