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Voice assistants like Alexa can offer a variety of benefits to support welling, in particular for older adults. When we talk about healthy ageing, it’s important to remember that this doesn’t just apply to when you are older, but in fact the things you do today can have a much greater impact than you realise on your quality of life in your later years.
When we created Kindspace we were thinking about our smart home customers and the challenges that they faced, like loneliness and a loss of autonomy. We’ve built Kindspace to address those issues, but also as a way to reduce the likelihood of issues building up. Checking in with yourself every day, whether that’s with an app like Kindspace, maybe a simple mood tracking app, keeping a journal, practicing mindfulness or even just talking to yourself really does help to bring awareness to how your mind and body are feeling.
If you’re interested in seeing what else your smart speaker can do, here are some examples of how your voice assistant can help you to age well:
- Improved cognitive function: Using a voice assistant can help you maintain cognitive function by stimulating your minds with activities like asking questions and playing quizzes and games. One of our favourite games is Question of the Day. To try it out just say “Alexa, open question of the day”.
- Enhanced social connections: Voice assistants can also be used to make and receive phone calls, video calls (if you have a device with a screen and camera) and send messages, which can help you to stay connected with friends and family. We have some guides on how to set up and use the communication features on your Alexa over on our TL Tech site, here. We’ve also been working on a new app in conjunction with a charity that is designed specifically to help people connect in their communities. More to come on this very soon!
- Increased independence: Voice assistants can assist with daily tasks such as setting alarms, providing weather and news updates, playing music, and even shopping online. There are more and more electronic devices coming with assistants like Alexa built-in making it possible for you to do things like control your coffee machine with your voice or open the blinds remotely.
- Improved safety and security: Voice assistants can also be integrated with smart home devices like doorbells, door locks, security lighting, and cameras, which can help you feel safer and more secure. You can also set up an emergency contact on your Alexa, so that if you say “help” it will contact the person you’ve set to let them know that you require assistance.
- Support with reminders: Voice assistants can be set to remind you to do all sorts of things from taking your medication to reminding you to stay active or drink water. Setting a reminder is super easy, you can do it with your voice, just ask Alexa to set a reminder and it will guide you through what the reminder is for and the timing, or you can set up more complex reminders in the Alexa smartphone app.
- Improved selfcare: Voice assistants can provide helpful information on exercise, diet and health topics, which can help you stay informed about important self-care topics and make healthier choices. The Kindspace tips library has information on a broad range of wellbeing topics including sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, relationship, personal growth, you-time, health, financial and complementary therapy. You can access this with your voice by saying “Alexa, ask Kindspace for a nutrition tip”.
It’s worth noting that for many people, using a voice assistant may take some time and patience to get used to. If you need any help with setting up your devices or learning more about the features, you can access our free guides over on the TL Tech website here. Also, voice assistants are not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, but they can be a useful tool to add to your toolkit for supporting wellbeing.
We hope this shows that you can create your kind space with voice technology and that voice assistants can be supportive and comforting.