I was born January the 19th 1926.

And I've been living in the Eastover community all my life.

And I had 10 head of children.

I raised seven head of mine and two grandchildren.

I was busy all my life and I'm still being busy at what I can do.

Mrs. Sinkler has arthritis in her hands.

And she relies on a wheel chair to get around.

She's no longer able to do some of her favorite hobbies.

Like sewing quilts or tending to the garden.

But she still does what she can to stay active.

I still cook.

I like boil pots.

Like peas and beans and okra and cabbage.

Spinach.

all that.

and I make biscuits.

All of them love my biscuits.

Besides cooking she spends time on her tablet.

She enjoys keeping up with relatives through Facebook.

She also plays games that keep her mind engaged.

And if you don't do things like that, you'll soon go down.

Sinkler says it's important to keep learning.

Especially at her age.

She believes staying active helps protect seniors from Dementia and other harmful conditions.

That's why she decided to take a Digital Literacy Class back in 2021.

That class, hosted by Palmetto Care Connections, is where she learned how to navigate her tablet, explore the internet, and use telehealth.

When Covid began, we started PCC's Digital Literacy Inclusion Program.

And what we were doing was teaching digital literacy skills.

We had a lot of patients, community members call our office and say, I have a telehealth visit with my doctor.

But I don't know what that means.

I don't know how to do it.

Where do I go?

So for us, it started out really teaching folks how to do telehealth visits.

But in order to do that, they have to be able to use a device.

They have to be able to connect to the Internet.

You want them to understand cybersecurity.

Here you are.

All right, Mrs. Jessie See how you're in there?

Yeah.

Mrs. Sinkler was the oldest participant that we have ever trained.

At the time of the training, she was 95 years old, and to see how much she wanted to learn at her age, even though she was in a wheelchair and she couldn't walk, she had some physical disabilities.

Her mind was very bright and she wanted to learn.

I mean, she was one of the most eager participants that we've probably had.

How you doing, Carol?

I liked being with other people for one.

and I liked what they taught on the tablet.

The class covered how to create an email address and a password.

Also, how to search on Google.

She says the one topic she enjoyed most was social media.

She learned how to safely use sites like Facebook.

With her grand children and great grandchildren scattered across the country, Facebook has helped her stay in touch.

Kathy Schwarting says teaching seniors how to use social media and Facetime, Cuts down on the isolation they may feel at home.

During the pandemic, one population that suffered the most were the seniors.

They did not leave their home.

Their kids and their grandkids didn't want to come over to visit because they were afraid that they would get them sick.

So they were very isolated.

Isolation leads to depression.

Depression leads to poor health outcomes.

So seniors were really a high risk group that we wanted to target.

We taught them how to use Zoom so they could connect to their church family and attend church services during the pandemic.

We taught them how to use facetime so that they could facetime, their kids and their grandkids and really just sort of bringing life back to them.

Everything is new and you got to learn all that before you can do it.

Oh yeah, It's important to try to keep learning because you have to learn the new stuff to keep up with it.

Mrs. Sinkler was among the first 100 seniors to participate in the digital inclusion program.

Since that initial pilot, the program has expanded to offer services to younger people, including special sessions for pregnant women and high school seniors.

To date more than 1400 people have been trained in digital literacy by Palmetto Care Connections.