Used flip phone program gives seniors a lifeline during emergency season

Photo: Castanet file photo

A local support program is taking used flip phones and offering them up to seniors so they can be prepared for emergency season.

Desert Sun Counselling & Resource Centre is assisting older adults in Oliver, Osoyoos, and Okanagan Falls to maintain contact and stay informed through a technology-based emergency preparedness program.

“Seniors really struggle to navigate an emergency," said Marieze Tarr, executive director with the Desert Sun Counselling & Resource Centre. "Most of the information about the emergency is found online and a lot of seniors don't know how to navigate the Internet.”

Staff at Desert Sun have refined their support program by observing past evacuations.

“We also realized that we had a lot of contact information for seniors, but they were landlines. And so, when the emergency happened, some seniors found the way to evacuate themselves but we had no way of connecting with them during the emergency.”

The United Way funded program started in 2022 and now has around 75 seniors enrolled in the program.

When emergency strikes, Desert Sun hands out preparedness kits, including the flip phones, a list of items that need to be packed, and other essentials. The centre also provides transportation to evacuation centres and gives updates to seniors’ family members who live outside of the Okanagan.

This emergency season, the centre is also hoping to connect seniors to programs offered by the centre so they can have access to meals and emotional support when they are away from home.

“Just having you somebody check in with them and talking to them on a daily basis in a calm voice — we found that really helped,” Tarr said.

“That's also the feedback that we received from a lot of our seniors was that, you know, that was great that there was somebody who checked in with them every day.”

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