A newly launched digital gift service for the care sector is set to bring much needed cheer to care users, as it provides relatives and family members with the opportunity to treat their loved ones to unique gifts and experiences.
Launched on the 15th May, the International Day of Families, Gifts with Care is a specifically developed online platform that enables friends and relatives of those who are living in care facilities to provide thoughtful gifts and experiences for their loved ones – helping them to know just how much they’re loved and valued.
An initiative that’s particularly fitting giving the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the idea behind it was inspired by a desire to provide those living in care with positive experiences, utilising care home facilities in the process; be that by offering beauty treatments, afternoon teas, special cinema viewings, specially cooked meals and more.
With modern care homes having wide ranging onsite facilities, from salons, to cinema rooms, shops to expert chefs; they offer diverse opportunities to provide memorable experiences and gifts to residents – helping to convey sentiment through kind gestures and thoughtfulness.
Care providers that sign up to Gifts with Care will be able to tailor individual experiences specific to their facilities. For instance, should a home have a beauty salon, a grandchild can order a specific treatment for their resident grandparent, helping them to celebrate a special occasion, or even just as a general treat.
How this works is determined by the individual care provider. Depending on the care agreement with the resident, the provider may look to charge the gift giver for the experience, or, alternatively, it can offer them for free, simply embracing the sentiment and thought behind the gift rather than asking for any monetary contribution. The team behind Gifts with Care will help manage the process, ensuring providers establish an offering that works for them.
Once the gift is chosen, a voucher confirming it can either be sent directly to the home to be presented to the resident or delivered to the person who has bought or chosen the gift, allowing them to present it to their loved one the next time they see them. However, given current social distancing measures, the former offers a safe form of gift giving with no infection risk involved.
Gifts with Care has been created by Pic PR, a communications agency that specialises in care, and 16i, a web application development company and digital agency. David Barrett, MD of Pic PR, said: “Gifts with Care has been in the planning long before coronavirus. However, the advent of COVID-19 now gives it extra poignancy and resonance, so we’ve accelerated the process to launch it now. With friends and relatives of residents needing to undertake social distancing, the platform provides the opportunity to treat loved ones, underlining just how much they’re loved and missed during a very difficult time. We’re hoping this will help to spread much needed cheer and joy for residents throughout the care sector.”
He continued: “As an agency, we have extensive experience of working in the care industry, having worked with a wide variety of care clients. This has given us considerable insight, helping us to understand the needs of both care providers and their residents. The hospitality industry has long provided a gift voucher service, where people can purchase treatments and other experiences. This is, in a way, a similar premise, but specific to the care industry and tailored accordingly.”
Gifts with Care comes in the wake of Pic PR’s recent Adopt a Grandparent scheme, which has seen over 80,000 volunteers sign up to digitally engage with care residents – helping to provide them with a vital connection to the outside world.
David added: “Our recent Adopt a Grandparent initiative has been met with a fantastic response with people from all over the world signing up. Our latest endeavour is on a similar theme – helping to spread positivity and joy throughout care homes. We’ve actually seen participants in AAG order gifts to the home for their adoptive ‘grandparent’, which has served to reinforce our belief that there’s a clear appetite out there for it – we’re just making the whole process easier and more accessible.”
Alex Clough, MD of 16i, said: “Gifts with Care is an enormously positive undertaking and we’re delighted to be playing a part in it. Given the isolation older people are experiencing at present, it’s fantastic to be able to provide a service that helps people to highlight to their loved ones just how much they’re thought of and how much they’re missed. The value of the initiative is also layered, with care providers, residents, relatives and friends all benefitting from a service that looks to boost morale and wellbeing for all involved.”
Care providers who sign up to the initiative during the current coronavirus pandemic will receive the service on a complimentary basis for the first 3 months.
Those interested in participating are invited to visit www.giftswithcare.co.uk and fill in the relevant enquiry form.
To find out more about Pic PR please visit www.picpr.com, email [email protected] or, alternatively, call 01386 882474. For 16i, please go to https://www.16i.co.uk/, email [email protected] or call 01242 654000.
