Told by Sam – Welfare Support Worker for Worcester Community Trust
I started working with Candy in April 2025. She is retired and has no local family to assist with digital issues. When we first met, she was struggling with her mental health and technology was causing her significant anxiety – she was particularly fearful of scams and costly mistakes. She had limited digital skills and although she previously worked with computers, the speed of progress in technology meant that she no longer felt confident.
She had been receiving some support from a colleague who referred her on to me as the support she needed was primarily digital skills. Candy was a little reluctant to receive tuition at first (she had previously attended some digital skills lessons in which a younger male had been condescending and belittling to her) but since we started working together, Candy has:
- Gained confidence with basic phone skills
- Learned how to download and update apps
- Gained confidence around online payments and security
- Learned how to access BBC iPlayer on both her phone and smart TV
- Discovered new features of her mobile phone such as QR code scanning, live translation and identification apps (plant identification and bird call identification etc.)
- Learned how to send emails with a subject, body and attachments.
- Learned how to use the camera app to take different kinds of photo and how to send those photos to friends and family.
- Started to use Google maps, GPS and other location services to get directions and public transport help.
- Opened a new phone contract with mobile data included so that she can use the internet outside of her home.
Candy has been very grateful for the support and that she has been supported in a low-pressure environment. She is still very nervous about technology, but this has improved significantly since we began working together. I supported her with getting a new phone contract so now she can use her new skills on the go, using tools such as GPS and Google maps, which is useful for her when she goes to visit different cities or areas. A big area of concern for her was around digital payments, they caused a lot of anxiety for her, and she was very fearful to make a payment but together we successfully booked and paid for a trip to the theatre which was Candy’s first online payment. She is excited to have this ability as it makes paying bills etc. considerably easier.