Zinnia TV is an app, a therapeutic caregiving tool especially made for those dealing with memory challenges, such as those with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s. Allyson Schrier joins Suzanne to talk about Zinnia TV and how it helps those with the illness as well as their caregivers. The app can be downloaded to a phone, tablet, or smart TV. It opens to a library of channels, and each channel has a menu of videos. There are a large number of channels, including the all-day channel, interests channel, places channel, nostalgia channel, and the nature channel.
Allyson says, “People should check out our Facebook page. We’re on LinkedIn, and there is a lovely lady named Adria Thompson, whose organization is Be Light and she put together a fabulous — gosh, we were just thrilled — a fabulous video talking about how she uses Zinnia TV. And that is on our Facebook page right now.”
The website hosts some sample videos. They’re on Facebook and LinkedIn. Zinnia TV subscriptions are $6.99/month, or $69.99/year, with a two-week free trial. Learn more at Zinnia TV.
Allyson Schrier: Sure. Zinnia TV is available as an app. Just like any app, you can download it and use it on your phone or on your tablet. We also work with connected televisions like Apple TV, Amazon Fire. So, there are lots of different ways to bring Zinnia TV into your life. And a subscription, we try to make it really reasonable for families at $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year for a subscription. When you download the app, there’s a two-week free trial period where you have access to all of the content to see whether or not it works for you. So people can definitely try, try before they buy.
Suzanne: So many of us are trying to figure out how do we keep normalcy in our house as much as possible. And this is a wonderful product that you can download. You can put it on a tablet, you can put it on… I see you, you’re on Apple TV. Is that correct? I think I saw that. So there’s different ways that you can access Zinnia TV. Would you, would you share a little bit about that?
Allyson Schrier: About the different ways that one can access it? So, for instance, if I download the app onto my tablet, it simply opens up into a library into a number of channels and I simply select the channel I wish to watch and I will see a huge list of videos that are available to me within that channel. So maybe I want to watch about the places channel and we can talk about places that we have been or that we wish we could go to one day. Or maybe I’ll look at the nostalgia channel which is really focused on things that might be reminiscent for me or the interest channel where we have videos that are about fly fishing or baking or tool, baseball or basketball or ice skating, or they’re just all different kinds of categories that we have on our channels channel is incredibly popular. Want to create kind of a soothing tone.
We also have something called the All Day channel which just plays. Some people have it kind of on as the background or it might be used in a long term care setting in a, in a lobby for instance, or just goes through and plays all different kinds of videos throughout the day.
Suzanne: And so if you download the app, you’re going to get an opportunity underneath their sub programming when you get that. It’s easy to use, different ways in which you can put it together. Now, what does it normally cost someone after they’re done with their trial?
Allyson Schrier: $6.99 a month, $69.99 a year. If you think about it, right,$69.99 a year, yhat’s like two hours of having somebody come in and help you do care.
Suzanne: Yeah, it’s like nothing. Well, and you think about what you pay for, you know, HBO or anything like that, and I would lay you odds for someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia, they’re going to actually listen to that many more hours than an HBO scenario or, you know, AMC plus or Paramount plus. How many apps do we actually access to get programming? So if we go to your website, what can we expect?
Allyson Schrier: If you go to our website, you will learn about the offering, you’ll have an opportunity to watch some sample videos, and see what the videos look like. And certainly you can try them, you can sit with your loved one with dementia, and watch a video together and see if it sparks them in any way. We have a video called, what do I like? And what do I like? Video is kind of a compendium of many of my videos that just goes from topic to topic to topic very quickly. So I could sit and I could watch you, and I could watch the show, and kind of say, wow, who would have known that he would have been so excited about the farm video.
People should check out our Facebook page. We’re on LinkedIn, and there is a lovely lady named Adria Thompson, whose organization is Be Light and she put together a fabulous — gosh, we were just thrilled — a fabulous video talking about how she uses Zinnia TV. And that is on our Facebook page right now.
Suzanne: We will definitely share it on our Facebook page as well. So those of you that are listening to the program, just go to either Answers for Elders or Zinnia TV on Facebook and you’ll be able to find us. and that will be important. So Allyson, we have about one minute — what’s in the future? Where do you see this going?
Allyson Schrier: So what’s in the future? Wow. Um, well, for us as a company, what’s in the future is just figuring out how we reach people, let people know about us, trying our best to have people understand that this is not just a streaming service where you watch videos, but it’s actually a therapeutic caregiving tool. And there is research that supports that it helps me as the caregiver while I’m helping the person living with dementia because you know what if they’re having a better day, I’m going to.
Suzanne: Absolutely.
Allyson Schrier: Yeah. And what’s next for us is looking at different markets. We’re looking at different cultural changes that we can make our videos. We have videos that are available in Cantonese videos that are available in different languages. So that is something that is really cool and that will be putting more energy into. We’re also looking at eventually kind of personalizing things a bit more, so that the app will help you decide which videos are best for you and your loved one.
Suzanne: Allyson. It’s been such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much for being with us.
Allyson Schrier: The pleasure is all mine. Thank you, Suzanne.
. . .
Suzanne: I would like to thank our guest Allyson Schrier from Zinnia TV for being with us this hour. And don’t forget Answers for Elders is on YouTube, on all of your favorite podcast platforms, and most certainly on AnswersforElders.com and on SeniorResource.com.
I would like to close out by telling all of you a very, very heart warming story about something happened this last week up in the Pacific Northwest. You see, since 1976 there was an original Seattle Seahawks ticket holder, season ticket holder, her name was Patty Hammond. She led the cheers for the fans for the very first season onward, when they started their franchise. She showed up for games in Superfan attire which was a blue sweatshirt, lots of bling sparkly blue and green stars adorned her huge glasses, with a bright blue wig, and a neon green pom pom with blue and green feather boas. They were her trademark and she was dubbed Mama Blue. A name that stuck forever at home games.
Mama Blue sat right by the tunnel to greet the players as they walked in and out of the locker room. And whether the Seahawks won or lost, she’d be blowing kisses. Cheering for them. And many fans, coaches, former players and the current ones would always stop, give her a big hug and a kiss. Mama Blue has always been the north star of the Seattle Seahawks fan base. She was the first Seahawks fan that was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, and in 2020, Seahawks Fan of the Year. She appeared on TV, news stories, commercials and more. And yet Mama Blue was never invested on whether the Seahawks won or lost. What she loved were who she called her boys. She loved them through dismal record seasons and she got to cheer for them when they finally won Super Bowl 48.
After a long illness, Saturday, March 4th, Mama Blue took her last breath. She was 92, and up until the end she was passionate, outspoken, outrageous, funny, gregarious, but most of all she was all about love, and we all loved her. I can only imagine right now that as she has ascended into a blue and green glittery cloud. And I bet you anything that Mama Blue has a large sparkling megaphone, and she’s there to entertain and make all the angels in the sky laugh for Mama Blue’s legacy.
She teaches us that being a fan isn’t about winning or losing, but it’s about loving the game. It’s about the connections that we make when we love a sport. Most importantly, it’s about showing love for one another. Mama Blue, rest in peace. I know you have shot way off into Seahawks heaven, and we fans send you so much love. I will love you forever, my dear friend. You will be truly missed by all of us. Thank you for all you did to make the fandom what it is today. We will always love and miss you.
And to each and every one of you have a great week, and we will see you next week. And what I always say at the end, be good to each other.
