At The Plug-in, we generate insights that have a real impact on the lives of older people and on the success of our clients. Through our work, we amplify the voices of older people while also improving the products, services and policies that affect them. The Plug-in has engaged with thousands of older Australians and delivered projects for dozens of organisations who want to understand them better.
Here’s what our two equally important stakeholder groups – our Influencers and our Clients – say about the impact we make:
Our Influencers say…
“It’s about having a voice. When you don’t have the opportunity to share, it’s hard to have a voice.” Marie
“[It’s the] bridge between innovators and the users who will experience the innovation.” Vic
“I hope people listen to what we have to say and make changes because it’s needed!” Shirley
“It is refreshing for organisations to listen to the ‘hidden’ mature group of people who are not stereotype personalities as we have had many experiences in our previous working lives that can be a contribution to helping people.” Carmen
“It’s nice to know that by contributing, you’re helping other people.” Helen
“I joined The Plug-in to assess what it actually does and how it achieves its goals. I concur that it is helping people to successfully age and making sure Governments prioritise Aged Care.” Bob
“I’ve attended two Plug-in workshops now and I enjoy it because you get to learn by talking to other people. That’s just a part of life – you never stop learning!” Chris
Our Clients say…
“You do some seriously amazing work with a community that clearly love being involved.” Sean Greely, Founder and CEO, Care-Konnect
“We have been overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and generosity of everyone who has volunteered to participate. This is such an important research area, and we are really looking forward to using insights provided by the participants to inform the development and delivery of programs to improve the health and well-being of Australians at every age.” Sinead Golley, Research Scientist, CSIRO
“The team at The Plug-in were great. They helped us through a project to understand what was important to older barbecue users, and how the Weber Pulse was able to address some of the pain points older barbecue users encounter.
We also worked with The Plug-in to better understand how to communicate with these potential customers, and design a hands on barbecue experience that could really engage older customers and show why the Weber Pulse is so special.
We’re taking what we’ve learnt from our work with The Plug-in team and from The Plug-in Influencers and building plans for the upcoming summer. We’re excited to share what the Pulse can deliver for older customers that ordinary barbecues just can’t.” Michael McDonald, Managing Director, R McDonald Co./Weber Australia and NZ
“Engagement with insightful and interested participants has given us invaluable feedback in developing acdAssist as a tool to assist the preparation of an advance care directive document. Participants were open in their approach and generous in their willingness to offer comment and suggestions for improvement. We have benefited greatly from their contribution.” Peter Myhill, on behalf of the development team, acdAssist
“ACH Group is developing an innovative health and wellness precinct, in northern Adelaide branded as ‘Healthia’. The Plug-in has been providing essential insights to shape the design of built forms and services at ACH Group’s Healthia Precinct since 2017. Their work has been invaluable in helping us to understand the health and wellbeing needs of the local community, test accommodation and service design concepts, and seek feedback on proposed pricing. The insights gathered via the Plug-in’s engagement and co-design with the community and potential end users will enable ACH Group to closely tailor Healthia and its services to the local community’s needs.” Louise Watson, Manager, Customer Care Major Projects, ACH Group
“We have been working with The Plug-in team for the last couple of years, particularly on projects that aim to understand older people’s experiences of care when transitioning between hospital and home. In the first project, The Plug-in team facilitated a series of workshops for older people and their care providers to develop insights into the nature of the problems experienced and potential solutions. This enabled us to apply for funding from The Hospital Research Foundation for a follow-on study to develop and test a solution to improve the coordination of care. Within this follow-on project, The Plug-in team are facilitating a further series of workshops, again with older people and care providers.
Our experience of working with The Plug-in has been extremely positive, from the recruitment of workshop participants, through to the professional organisation and facilitation of the stakeholder workshops and subsequent analysis, interpretation and reporting of the feedback from workshop participants. They provide a really efficient and professional service – and importantly, are fun to work with!” Professor Gillian Harvey, Matthew Flinders Fellow, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University