Supporting Independent Living: Assistive Technology for Health and Social Care Service Users

SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT LIVING
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2
LO 1.............................................................................................................................................................2
1.1 How to use the technology for supporting users of health and social care services.........................2
1.2 The barriers for technology use for supporting health and social care service users........................3
1.3 The benefits of these technologies to health and social care organizations and their users.............4
LO 2.............................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 The health and safety considerations during the technology use in health care...............................4
2.2 Ethical considerations during the use of assistive technology...........................................................5
2.3 Impact of emerging developments in health care services................................................................6
LO 3.............................................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Identify the specific needs of the individual for living independently...............................................7
3.2 Technological recommendations for supporting independent living................................................8
3.3 Usefulness of technology for the health care services users.............................................................9
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
This technology is for helping those individuals who are having trouble in communicating with others or
while handling the daily tasks such as walking or change of posture. These devices are also called
adaptive devices and are used for adapting to the needs of the patient and assist them while performing
certain tasks. The devices are designed to adapt to the requirements of the user and assist them in
performing their tasks (Abi-Wardé, et al. 2017). These devices can be as simple as a walker which can
help them to practice walking or a hearing assistance which can help the patient to help with the hearing
issues. Magnifying glass, in this case, can help the patient to assist them with the vision impairment so
that they can read properly.
LO 1.
1.1 How to use the technology for supporting users of health and social care services
Independent living for patients suffering from mental illness is the living arrangement that gets
manufactured especially for the elderly and disabled individuals who are staying within the community
instead of within the hospital or nursing home. It also indicates that individuals having a certain form of
disability should be provided with the same life choices as the non-independent individuals would
survive. The assistive technology can be defined as the item, object, device or system that assists the
individual to complete the task in an effective way and in a safe manner. This is also composed of
responsive, preventive and assistive technology that can ease their work and can also prevent them from
any kind of harm (Bedaf, et al. 2015). As an example, the medical dispenser system is an effective means
for patients to take their medicines on time.
The health and social care service users require adequate care and respect within their society. Therefore,
the health care issues that are faced by Sally such as numbness in the foot along with tingling sensation,
the eye patch and other memory issues require Sally to be assisted with appropriate assistive technology
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for helping her. As per the case study, the use of assistive technology has helped Sally to perform her
usual tasks with much independence. Sally was helped by providing her with a bigger size keyboard as
the normal assistive need. Due to the bigger keyboard size, Sally was able to type even after suffering
from limited vision. She was provided with the dressing stick along with the toothbrush handles that can
help her to perform the brushing function easily (Blanck and Martinis, 2015). Along with this, the kitchen
aids such as the recipe holders, pans, and pots with larger size handle, jar openers, etc. are helping Sally
to cook in a facile way. She has also been suggested to use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) which can
help her in in the form of a Pocket Coach even though when she was having memory problems.
1.2 The barriers for technology use for supporting health and social care service users
The assistive technology in the present day is able to help the disabled individuals or the elderly
population in accomplishing the activities that they are capable of performing by themselves but are
unable to do it due to their present medical condition. Further, the use of assistive technology has been
possible with the advent of new technology, however, the use of any technology is associated with certain
barriers or challenges. One of the major challenges that appear during the use of assistive technology is an
inappropriate training program. The assistive devices are usually based on the implementation of modern
technology and the use of these devices require adequate training support for enabling the patients to use
them in the appropriate manner (Billis, et al. 2015). Further, it is also important that the training schedule
is developed in a manner which is simple for the patients to develop a sufficient understanding of the
device use which is often a challenge to meet. It is further not easy for the disabled patients to learn the
way to use of these devices and operate them without any assistance. In the provided case study, Sally is
able to make use of PDA for helping with her memory needs but would not be able to memorize and use
all the individual features of this device. Another challenge would be the cost of these assistive devices
which is usually high. It is fortunate that Sally is able to afford the cost of these devices such as PDA but
this would not be possible for every patient who gets advised to use an assistive device. Also, there occurs
at times a mismatch between the supply and the demand of these assistive devices. Further, there occurs a
challenge where the patients are reluctant to use the assistive technology (Czaja, 2016). Also, at times, in
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certain sections of the society, the patients who use the assistive devices have to face discrimination.
Therefore, although the assistive devices would help Sally to lead a better life, however, this may not be
appreciated by all sections of the society. In such cases, it is important that the use and benefits of
assistive technology are known to all the individuals within the community and the patients promote its
use.
1.3 The benefits of these technologies to health and social care organizations and their users.
The users of assistive technology are able to perform their daily routine work without much assistance
required and are able to lead their lives by implementing their own choices. Along with this, the
additional benefit of the assistive technology is that it would help to reduce the cost of health care
services for the disabled patients or elderly individuals. At times, few assistive devices may be costly
however in most of the conditions, the cost of an assistive device is lesser than the amount paid for
appointing a healthcare staff at home. The use of these devices depends on the kind of patient disability or
else the task that needs to be finished (D’Onofrio, et al. 2017).
The use of assistive technology has benefitted different stakeholders and has helped the patients along
with the healthcare organizations. The patients have benefitted in a way that their lives become easier.
Without the use of assistive technology, several things would depend on the nurses and the patient’s
family. The use of assistive technology has helped Sally in resolving her vision and memory problems.
With the benefits of assistive devices, Sally is able to drive and live her life in an independent way. This
would also benefit the healthcare organizations as otherwise, they have to hire the nurses and healthcare
staff who are dealing with specific skills for managing disabled patients. This dependency has been
reduced with the use of assistive technology (Drake and Whitley, 2014).
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