Many elderly people have interests they could happily talk about for hours. Gardening. Travel. Books. History. Art.
Family and carer conversations often focus on practical matters. Have you eaten? How was your appointment? Did the prescription arrive? They don’t always leave much room for the subjects someone genuinely enjoys.
That is why we created Interest Calls: to make interests the centre of the conversation, not just something mentioned in passing.
Alongside our regular wellbeing calls, we have developed conversation frameworks built around specific interests. Rather than treating an interest as a passing topic, we use it as the foundation for a series of engaging conversations over time.
For example, our Gardening series explores favourite gardens, seasonal techniques, successes and disasters, gardening trivia and more. Our Travel series revisits their favourite destinations, memorable places (including how they’ve changed and lesser-known quirks), past journeys and trips still waiting to be explored.
Our Books series works slightly differently. Your parent can choose a book they have recently read or would like to revisit. We then create a conversation framework around that book, so the caller can explore the story, characters, themes and personal reflections with them over a series of calls.
These are not lectures or lessons. They are thoughtful, well-structured conversations designed to give people the pleasure of spending time with a subject they deeply enjoy.
Our callers use tailored conversation frameworks developed for each series, helping them move naturally from one discussion to the next while keeping the conversation personal, engaging and relevant to the individual. We have already tested the approach and seen how quickly it can turn a call into something richer, more personal and more enjoyable.
More topic frameworks will follow as we learn what parents enjoy most. If there is an interest area you would like us to consider, please drop us an email: hello@parentcalls.co.uk.