Supporting Independent Living: A Comprehensive Analysis of Technology's Role

Supporting Independent Living

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
L01................................................................................................................................................. 3
1.1- EXPLANATION OF THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN BE UTILISED TO SUPPORT THE
USERS TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY................................................................................................3
1.2- ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT BARRIERS IN THE USAGE OF THE TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS
SUPPORTED THE INDIVIDUAL LIVING OF THE USERS OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES.....................5
1.3- EVALUATION OF THE DIFFERENT BENEFITS OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES..............................7
LO2.................................................................................................................................................8
2.1- EXPLAINATION OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USAGE OF THE
TECHNOLOGIES..........................................................................................................................8
2.2- DISCUSSION ON THE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USAGE OF THE TECHNOLOGY. .10
2.3- EXPLAINATION OF THE DIFFERENT IMPACTS DUE TO THE RECENT AND THE EMERGING
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS..........................................................................................11
LO3............................................................................................................................................... 13
3.1- IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPECIFIC NEEDS OF INDIVIDUAL REQUIRING SUPPORT TO LIVE
INDEPENDENTLY...................................................................................................................... 13
3.2- RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN MAKING INDEPENDENT
ARRANGEMENTS......................................................................................................................14
3.3- EVALUATION OF THE USEFULNESS OF THE TECHNOLOGY BY SERVICES USERS................17
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
Technology has become a part of the day to day lives of the people. There are different
emerging technologies in the world like the mobile phones, email communication, internet
sources, remote control devices and different machines in the field of the health care. The
advancement in the technology has helped the various individuals to access and avail the
services of the social care and health by which they independently live their lives. This
assignment is majorly based on the understanding of the different technologies in supporting
the independent living of the people.
The different barriers of the technology to the healthcare and its users are being analysed in
this report. Along with this, the different benefits are also being explained. The different ethical
considerations while using the technologies in the healthcare are discussed along with their
impacts. The specific needs of an individual that require the support to live independently and
the usefulness of some of the technologies of this field are evaluated.
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L01
1.1- EXPLANATION OF THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN BE UTILISED TO
SUPPORT THE USERS TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY
The people suffering from the different kinds of disabilities are being benefited by the various
advancements in the technology and medicine during the last few years. It has been stated by
the UK parliament that the individuals suffering from some disabilities must have similar kind of
freedom, control and choices as like the other individuals at the work, family or in their
community (Dickinson. and Gregor, 2016). In this particular case study, Sally is suffering from
the different kinds of disabilities like the numbness, double vision due to which her regular day
to day work started getting affected as she was facing difficulties in performing the different
activities. The advancements in the technology do not means that the disabled person can do
everything by themselves it only means that they can decide and look after any assistance with
their own choices (Onguti, et al. 2017).
As the Sally has been suffering from the vision impairment or double vision the use of the
assistive technology and devices are being used like the eye patch to deal with her vision issue
and minimise its effect. With the help of the given case study, it has been realized that the
treatments given to the patients must be from their own choices and consent. The Sally is
facing numbness in her right side of the body part for which Occupation Therapist an ankle-foot
orthosis is being suggested for improving her right foot and better mobility. She was facing
issues in typing also for which a special large keyboard was provided to her that possess the
illuminating keys ((Townsley, 2010).
Sally is also facing issues in the driving the car steering with both the hands for which a sponge
knob on the steering wheel and a left foot accelerator was provided to teach her the new
methods of driving. To improve the memory of the Sally she was given the Personal digital
Assistant also known as the Pocket Coach which will remind her about what to do next by just
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a single click of a button (Dadlani, et al. 2011). These technological methods have helped Sally
in supporting an individual living.
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1.2- ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT BARRIERS IN THE USAGE OF THE
TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS SUPPORTED THE INDIVIDUAL LIVING OF THE USERS
OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES
In order to encourage the usage of the supporting technology by the individuals those are
suffering from some disabilities or the users of the healthcare services to become independent
the barriers of the technology acts as a wall. Various barriers are being faced by the service
users during the support technologies usage like the high cost of treatments or devices,
difficulties to access the technology, issues in the training, issues in maintaining the
technological equipment and some other mechanical breakdown during the usage of the
support services (Gibson, et al. 2015)
The instruments and gadgets of the supporting technology are of high costs due to the usage of
advanced technology and costly processors inside them. In the current case study, Sally who
has been suffering from vision impairment and memory loss has been provided PDA to improve
her day to day activities and remember her tasks. PDA is a highly expensive gadget as it is built
on the advanced technology whose maintenance cost is also high as it requires a proper
internet connection and battery replacements from time to time(Piwek, et al. 2016).
Proper training is required by the service users to handle the technological gadgets and
instruments for the proper support of the individual living like the Sally must be provided with
the effective training to use the PDA to remember her work and to use the special keyboards to
improve her typing. Some technological or mechanical breakdown might occur in the PDA, left
foot accelerator or in the keyboard which needs to be handled by some expert. As in the case
of the Sally, she needs to look after the assistance of some expert for the proper service and
maintenance of her assisted gadgets (Gibson, et al. 2015).
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