Supporting Independent Living in Health and Social Care

Supporting Independent
Living in Health and
Social Care

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explain how technology can be used to support users of health and social care services in
living independently...............................................................................................................3
1.2 Analyse barriers to the use of technology to support users of health and social care
services in living independently.............................................................................................4
1,3 Explain the benefits of these technologies to health and social care organisations and their
users........................................................................................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Explain health and safety considerations in the use of technologies in health and social
care.........................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Discuss ethical considerations in the use of assistive technologies.................................7
2.3 Explain the impacts of recent and emerging technological developments on health and
social care services, organisations and care workers..............................................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Identify specific needs of an individual requiring support to live independently............9
3.2 Make recommendations for how technologies might support the independent living
arrangements...........................................................................................................................9
3.3 Evaluate the usefulness of technology for users of health and social care services.......10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Supportive health and social care services given to a disabled person whether he or she is
disabled from physical or mental aspects, can help in enhancing the chances of the patient to live
the life in her or his own way without taking help from any individual like a care taker, a family
member and so on. Living an independent life is something that every single person seeks for
whether the person is fit or disabled and in order to support free life (Fischinger and et. al.,
2016), government and other health care agencies of United Kingdom has taken a range of
initiatives like they have started funding individual for assistive care unit related technologies
and so on. In present context, initial section of the report will be focusing on a particular case of
Mrs. Johnson who is dealing with forgetfulness and disoriented problems.
Also, this section will be considering the different range of technologies that can help or
support users of health and social care services in living life independently some of the barriers
will also be discussed and the benefits as well. On the other hand, the next section of this report I
will be focusing on health and safety considerations, ethical considerations while utilising
assistive technologies and lastly impact of recent and emerging technological developments over
healthcare services, care workers and organisations. In the last phase of the report, a case study
has also been considered of Joseph who was dealing with dementia where the range of needs for
support to live independently life will be discussed and recommendations will also be given on
the devices that may help Joseph to continuously living his independent life. Lastly, usefulness
of technology will also be presented in this report.
Task 1
1.1 Explain how technology can be used to support users of health and social care services in
living independently
As mentioned by Lotfi and et. al., (2018), supporting users of health and social care
services while focusing on independent living can be considered as the ability that helps a patient
to conduct all the daily tasks without taking any sort of help from care givers. On the other hand,
it has been found that government of United Kingdom has taken ample number of initiatives in
order to make individuals who are dealing with a particular or a range of disabilities and this is
where assistive technology is considered to be one of the crucial element that was considered by
government for better outcomes.