Myfolks bridges the gap between health and social care – an app and support system that aims to combat social isolation by using technology to provide help at the press of a button.
The Myfolks app connects users with supportive individuals (Myfolksers) drawn from the local community, to provide on-demand care and support with everyday needs.
Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC) has supported Myfolks through its value proposition and development, and Louise Thompson (Founder and CEO) has shared her personal drive and passion into establishing a compassionate support service that plugs a gap between health and social care.
How did you come up with the idea for Myfolks?
I was living in Sussex working as Commercial Director for De La Rue; at that time my parents got ill with dementia in the North East – two different stages, two different types.
I was working in one county, living in another. Working from home really wasn’t a thing back then, so I was in three counties and I call that my ‘triangle of hell’ because whichever county I was in of the three, I felt like I should have been in two others and that I wasn’t doing a good job by anybody.
My parents wanted simple solutions. For example, they would tell me that the TV was broken, but they didn’t mean that the TV was actually broken; they just couldn’t get the right channel because they didn’t know how to work the remote anymore.
Or they would get a flyer through the door that they would suddenly interpret as an official letter saying they were going to be evicted. It was always a big panic for minor things. Things that are quite easy to fix, but not when you’re living 300 miles away from them. So, I was really under a lot of pressure; my brother was helping me but between the two us it was still really hard.
One morning at 5 o’clock, I woke up on the floor in my parents’ one-bedroom flat that they’d moved into and just thought I needed help desperately. So, I Googled for somebody who would do the things that I would do if I wasn’t there in real time – not personal care but just straightforward help – and I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t order anything that said, ‘their lightbulb’s just gone, they’re sitting in the dark, can someone go now?’
So that is what Myfolks is – that morning, the name came to me, the vision came to me. That’s what is needed and it doesn’t exist.
I went on an accelerator in Newcastle in 2019; I learned all the things that I needed to do, but it seemed like it was just impossible. Then the pandemic hit and we lost Dad. Both of those things made me run back into the corporate world, thinking one day Myfolks will happen, but it isn’t right now. We then came out of Covid and lockdown and there was even more need for it then.
How does Myfolks work?
We developed the Myfolks platform working with our supplier, Wubbleyou. You go onto our website where the app is situated, and it’s really simple. You can book visits at a time to suit your family. We will keep everyone updated on progress.
All Myfolksers are enhanced DBS checked, and have to adhere to our code of business principles, which contain data protection requirements and details of, how we expect visits to be conducted. Then a Myfolkser visits the person they’ve been matched with, and the main thing is to connect and chat, as well as to help with everyday practical tasks. It has been said that if “there is such a thing as organisational compassion, then Myfolks has it in spades. I am a very very happy customer.”
One of our customers used to be an in-store Santa Claus; that’s what he did after he retired. He can’t do it anymore because he’s got breathing difficulties as a result of Covid and he just loves to relive that experience, and he just misses that and loves to talk about it.
What support has Myfolks received?
We were accepted into the National Innovation Centre for Ageing and began working with HI NENC. We won NICA’s the Voice’s Choice Award in December 23. We were successful in being accepted on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneurs Programme, which has been running for eight years. This is the very first year that the programme has accepted innovators who are not working in the NHS.
Getting on this Programme was such a good step forward for Myfolks, and that’s partly because of the help received from HI NENC.
Since then, HI NENC has been heavily involved in helping me develop the value proposition for Myfolks in the public sector, and we are taking that forward in a variety of ways, including with NHS England’s InSites team.
What are the next steps for Myfolks?
What we really want is a hospital ward to trial Myfolks in relation to expediting hospital discharge. When somebody gets admitted they would be asked if they have got anybody at home, and if they say no, and their requirements are more practical and social, that should trigger the referral to Myfolks. We could then meet the family and get in touch. If we can link NHS apps into the Myfolks app, that will ensure safe transmission of information in a secure way.
Myfolks is right on the cusp between whether it the family responsibility, is the NHS responsibility, or is it local authority, yet local authorities and NHS don’t have a lot of money.
In addition, I think we need to get ahead of the challenges in respect of social isolation and HI NENC and the Arrow Programme (led by local universities) are helping us with this some primary research on this. We need to start focusing on prevention, so that if we can start going to people before they fall into decline, we can keep them well for longer and it will save money, it will save care costs. So, I’m hoping to get people to understand that new approach is needed. We have to think differently, but that is a challenge. Getting people to accept and trust and be the first to say “we are going to prescribe Myfolks”, we’re hoping that will come soon.
Finalists in the North Tyneside Business Awards
We are delighted that Myfolks has been named as a finalist in the Innovation and Technology category for the North Tyneside Business Awards 2024.
Recognised by the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, Myfolks is partnered with the Arrow Programme and Newcastle and Northumbria Universities to advance machine learning in real-time support systems for the elderly.