This project explored the role of digital technology as a co-creative activity in mitigating loneliness and social isolation for groups who were particularly at risk of it. One group we focused our work on in this project was family carer, understanding their experiences of transistioning into being a carer and their feelings in relation to isolation and disconnection from friends, family and peers.

ChatR was one of the outputs of a two-year long engagement. Through interviews and design workshops we explored the experiences of transitioning to being a carer and the feelings of isolation and lack of social connectivity that come from this. Our interviews identified that because of a sudden withdrawal from professional and social networks to take on this role, many carers experience significant reductions in opportunities to socialise and meet others, and feel those who were close to them know longer understand their new circumstances. We developed ChatR with carers as a response to some of these challenges. It was designed to remotely connect carers through an asynchronous audio-based network. It allows them to search through channels with different content on them, and to share short stories, ask questions, or share some advice across a closed group of other carers. ChatR allows the carers to listen to the contributions of others, respond to them, or just ‘like’ what they have heard. We have conducted an initial pilot evaluation of the first version of the ChatR system, and planning to do a more in depth and longer-term evaluations.