The lives of elderly residents at a Wirral care home are being transformed by the latest technology, including VR headsets, Fitbits, iPads and the Amazon Alexa.

Staff at Brimstage Manor care home say many of their residents have been given a new lease of life after using the new technology, which is part of a digital support project being run by Redmoor Health. Activities have included doing a virtual spacewalk and riding a rollercoaster ride thanks to a VR headset, doing Skype calls with relatives on the other side of the world to simply playing games and listening to music through Alexa.

Angela Killip is the operations manager for Century Healthcare, which runs the Wirral care home. She said they jumped at the chance of taking part in the project, which is being run on behalf of the Good Things Foundation.

Angela said: “We’ve got a very mixed range of residents, some with dementia, some with mobility issues and we also have some end-of-life patients.

“Technology isn’t right for all of them but it’s improving the overall quality of life.”

“Everything we do is about improving the wellbeing of our residents and enhancing their lives. A lot of them already have mobile phones so we wanted to see how we could open up technology to them.”

“Some residents find it uncomfortable having their blood pressure taken but the Fitbit can do it as easily as wearing a watch. Technology doesn’t have to be daunting. You can listen to music on an iPad or play colouring games but you can also Skype your relatives on the other side of the world.

“Some of our homes have VR headsets and residents can do a virtual space walk or swim under the sea. We have a number of end-of-life patients and if they want to go on a rollercoaster or walk on the beach one last time the VR headsets can recreate that.

“It’s a learning curve for staff too and but after getting involved we started a Facebook page for all of the homes so we can update residents’ families.”

Good Things Foundation is a social change charity that supports socially excluded people to improve their lives through digital and the North West initiative asked Redmoor Health to oversee the programme and provide technology to Century Healthcare’s homes as well as running digital workshops for staff.