Supporting Independent Living: The Role of Technology in Health and Social Care

SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT LIVING

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
LO 1................................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1 EXPLAINING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORTING THE USERS OF THE HEALTH AND
SOCIAL CARE SERVICES IN LIVING INDEPENDENTLY..................................................................3
1.2 DIFFERENT BARRIERS ANALYSIS THAT HELPS IN THE SUPPORT OF THE INDIVIDUALS OF
HEALTH CARE SERVICES.............................................................................................................5
1.3 EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT BENEFITS OF THE TECHNOLOGIES OF HEALTH CARE.............6
LO 2................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.1 EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USAGE OF
THE TECHNOLOGIES OF HEALTH CARE...................................................................................... 7
2.2 DISCUSSING THE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USAGE OF THE HEALTH CARE
TECHNOLOGIES..........................................................................................................................9
2.3 DISCUSSING THE DIFFERENT IMPACTS OF THE RECENT AND THE EMERGING
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ORGANIZATIONS AND CARE WORKERS OF THE
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES.......................................................................................10
LO 3.............................................................................................................................................. 12
3.1 SPECIFIC NEEDS IN ORDER TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT LIVING........................................12
3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HOW TECHNOLOGIES MIGHT SUPPORT THE INDEPENDENT
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS..........................................................................................................15
3.1 USEFULNESS OF TECHNOLOGY FOR USERS OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES.......18
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 20
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................21
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INTRODUCTION
Health and social care is a vast sector that offers services to several citizens in the UK, as 18% of
total population in the UK is above 65; there is a significant amount of users that require health
and social services (Office for National Statistics, 2016). The following module will provide an
understanding of the impact of technology on health and social care services and independent
living of elders. Initially, the technological impact is explained and analysed along with its
benefits. Later, implications of developments in technologies are discussed in detail. Lastly,
technologies that can support the independent living of elders is been identified and evaluated.
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LO 1
1.1 EXPLAINING THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORTING THE USERS OF
THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES IN LIVING INDEPENDENTLY
There are various kinds of the technological advancements made in the field of the health care
that has aided the different individuals in to face and overcome the different kinds of
disabilities. According to the government of UK, the different individuals that are differing from
the disabilities must be treated equally as others and they should have control over their
choices and must have the freedom to live independently in the communities (Greenhalgh, et
al. 2015). Sally is an individual in this case study who is suffering from the various diseases like
the double vision, numbness and have a problem in her right parts of the body. As she is
suffering from these diseases in her day to day work, regular activities are getting affected. The
advancements made in the technology do not mean that the disabled individuals will need to
do everything on their own but it allows them to live their life at their own choice without
seeking any assistance (Memon, et al. 2014).
The assistive technology is one of the advancements that can be utilised by the Sally as she is
suffering from the double vision problem. The device named eye patch can also be used in
order to minimize the effect of the double vision and deal with it (Gibson, et al. 2016). It is
essential that technological treatments given to the patients must be from their consent and
choices. Sally was facing issues in her mobility so she has been referred to an occupational
therapist and was given an ankle-foot orthosis to improve her problem of the right foot.
Special assistive technology a special keyboard was given to her as she was facing issues in
typing and the large letters with the yellow background can help her to recognize the letters
(Bethoux, et al. 2014).
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As Sally was also facing the problem of numbness in her right foot and hand she was not able to
drive her car and was reducing her independence for which on the steering wheel of her a
sponge knob has been used and in order to teach her some new methods of driving a left foot
accelerator has been built on her car (Orellano-Colón et al. 2018). Sally use to forget her things
of her day to day life as her memory is getting weak for which she was provided with a Personal
Digital Assistant device(PDA) also known as the Pocket Coach that will her to recognize her
work in a just in a click of button and to remember what else to do next. In order to support the
individual living of Sally, these technological advancements have helped a lot.
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