LONDON — ImLive.com announced they are donating free one-on-one "companion sessions" to new users currently living in senior living facilities to "help make their stays during the pandemic less lonely."
“Either outside visitors to most facilities have been either banned or highly restricted, leaving some residents trapped in their rooms with no one to speak to,” a rep explained. “Through ImLive, senior users can use these sessions to connect with hosts for simple companionship and someone to talk to. The hosts will be paid directly by ImLive and the sessions will include site enhancements such as larger fonts and icons designed to create a more enjoyable senior user experience.”
The company said the offer originated as a request from an ImLive member who can no longer visit their relative.
“I’m multiple time zones away from my grandfather who lives in a nursing home. He isn’t allowed to have any visitors and I want him to have a friend to talk to,” the member wrote.
This wish is one of 18 that ImLive will select as part of the company’s “18th Birthday Wish-a-Thon" campaign, which has drawn "thousands of submissions across the ImLive website and on social media" and will be running through Sunday.
ImLive VP Adrian Stoneman said that the elderly community has been "affected greatly throughout the pandemic, especially those in senior living facilities and nursing homes where in most cases they haven’t had visitors regularly for months. This is an opportunity to introduce some of those seniors to a few new friends.”
“A lot of people can relate to the feeling of not being able to do much for the elderly relatives or seniors in their lives because they physically cannot be with them due to visiting restrictions at these facilities,” Stoneman added. “Through these free sessions, those seniors can utilize our ImLive hosts for companionship along with the added features designed to make navigating the site as seamless as possible.”
Nursing facilities interested in offering this free service to their elderly residents should email their request to elderly@imLive.com. After verifying the facility, ImLive will send links and schedules for the free sessions to the interested residents. No credit card or personal information will be required from these users, as ImLive will pay its hosts for the sessions directly as part of the giveaway.
For more information, visit ImLive and follow them on Twitter.