Independent Living Support: The Role of Technology in Healthcare

This report provides a comprehensive overview of how technology supports independent living within the health and social care sector, focusing on the experiences of individuals like Sally who face various disabilities. It examines the use of assistive technologies such as eye patches, specialized keyboards, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to address challenges related to vision impairment, mobility, and memory loss. The report also analyzes barriers to technology adoption, including cost, maintenance, and training issues, while highlighting the benefits of technology in enhancing independence and reducing risks. Furthermore, it discusses health and safety considerations, ethical implications, and the impact of emerging technological developments on healthcare organizations and workers. The report concludes by recommending specific technologies to support independent living arrangements and evaluating their usefulness for healthcare service users.

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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1.2 DIFFERENT BARRIERS ANALYSIS THAT HELPS IN THE SUPPORT OF THE
INDIVIDUALS OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES
There are different barriers present that acts as a wall in the utilisation of the technology by the
health and social care service users those are dealing with disabilities. Some of the issues faced
during the usage of the technology by the healthcare individuals includes the difficulties to
access the new technologies without proper knowledge, high costs of the treatments,
difficulties in the maintenance of the technological equipment, training issues along with the
issues of the mechanical breakdown that might occur during the usage of the support services
of healthcare (Andersen, et al. 2015).
As the advanced technology like costly processors are being used in making the highly reliable
equipment's, the gadgets and the instruments of the healthcare treatments are quite costly.
One of the technological devices named PDA was offered to the Sally to improve her problem of
memory loss and vision impairment, which is a very costly gadget and the cost required to
maintain it is also very high which is one of the other barriers to the support of the individuals
(Weir et al. 2018). The PDA batteries need to be replaced and internet connection needs to be
recharged from time to time.
As Sally was provided with technological gadgets, car with the right foot accelerator and sponge
knob so if proper training is not given to her it can even be led to the loss of her life. So,
improper training regarding the equipment like PDA, in this case, to make her remember her
task can affect her life (Odendaal, et al. 2015). Proper training regarding the usage of the
special keyboard is required to avoid the barriers. Sometimes assistance of others or experts is
also required by Sally in case of the mechanical breakdowns in the PDA or left foot accelerator
which is one of the other barriers in her independent living by the usage of technology.
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1.3 EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT BENEFITS OF THE TECHNOLOGIES OF
HEALTH CARE
Various difficulties of the individuals in the support of the independent living have been
reduced by the usage of the supporting technology in the healthcare. These technological
advancements have helped the people to face different disabilities and made their lives easy
and independent. The sponge knob on the steering wheel of Sally's car and left foot accelerator
has helped her in driving the car easily and resolved her problem of mobility. This resolved
issues of Sally and has helped her in living her life independently (Stoddart and Evans, 2017).
The personal digital assistant that has been provided to her has helped to recall and remember
the various day to day tasks that she needs to perform like taking the medicines also that she
might forget due to the memory loss. This has helped her to face her disease of numbness. In
order to avoid the things that she should not do which can create issues for her are reminded
to her by the PDA. Sally’s independence level has been increased due to the advanced
technology that has reduced various risks (Folland, et al. 2016).
The eye vision of the Sally has also been improvised by the utilisation of the eye patch and her
typing problems have also been solved by the use of the special keyboard. The PDA has one of
the great advantages of storing the data and easy access to the different services of health care
(Ventola, 2014). The various technological devices that have been used in the case of the Sally
has helped her a lot in dealing with the different situations that she faces and have improved
her independent living.
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LO 2
2.1 EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS IN
THE USAGE OF THE TECHNOLOGIES OF HEALTH CARE
There are some of the health and safety concerns that need to be taken care before providing
any kind of technological equipment to the people dealing with several disabilities. During the
year 1974, several provisions regarding the safety of the different individuals under the health
care regulations were developed on how to use the different personal support equipment on
the people (Forbes and Watt, 2015). The considerations regarding the maintenance and repair
of the technological equipment and gadgets must also be taken care.
The various health and safety gadgets are provided to Sally so she must understand the
different safety consideration regarding them. Before providing her sponge knob and left foot
accelerator in her care she was instructed regarding their complete usage. If improper training
would have given to her, in this case, this might have resulted in some serious accident in her
life would have been put in danger (Peek, et al. 2014). So, proper implication might have
resulted in such case if any breakdown occurs.
In order to make Sally remember taking medicines non-time and perform some other works
regularly she was given PDA to store and memorize important things and if any technical issues
occur in it at any moment then this will result in her poor health and some severe
consequences. In order to deal with her issues of numbness, right side weakness, vision
impairment and other issues she must be prescribed proper treatments and medicines (Kayser,
et al. 2014).
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Sally has to continue her job to support her independent living but if any mechanical
breakdown or technical issues get raised in the keyboard that was provided to her to deal with
per vision issue then there might be chances that can lose her job. Thus, it is essential to
prevent and maintain the different technological equipment so that the heavy investment
made by Sally in her treatment and support of the independent living would not be wasted.
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2.2 DISCUSSING THE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE USAGE OF THE
HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGIES
Ethics of individuals can be defined as the concepts and the fundamental principles that they
follow to decently deal with other people or in the decent code of conduct. In the field of the
health care services, there are some ethical considerations that the individuals providing these
services must follow before providing any technical assistance to Sally for improving her health.
The different ethical issues in relation to the treatment of the Sally must maintain throughout
to support her in independent living. The treatments, technological equipment, tests were
done, gadgets are other important information of Sally must be kept confidential to ensure her
privacy (Holloway and Galvin, 2016). The PDA that has been provided to her consist of her
various personal information like the medicine and the treatment details and in case of any
technical issue in the device all her personal information can be assessed by anyone which will
be against the ethical considerations and thus according to the data and safety protection act
the rules will be violated. In order to keep this information safe, the access to the PDA must be
limited to some people like the family and health care providers (Neumann, et al. 2016).
It is also essential that Sally's consent must be taken and proper ethics should be followed
before offering any kind of technical treatment to her. It has been noticed that sometimes the
treatments are enforced on the individuals who result in their frustrations and doing such thing
without the patient's consent is against the morals (Cherry and Jacob, 2016). Thus, in order to
support different individuals, those are availing the services of the healthcare, ethics and
morals should be considered.
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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
It has been observed that the implementation of the technological advancements like assistive
technology has affected the health of the various individuals. The daily routine and working
activities of the employees get affected by the latest developments in the healthcare
technology. The processes like medical diagnostics of the patients have been improved. The
diagnosis of the severe problems like hearing disabilities, vision impairments, cancers etc. can
be easily done with the technological developments (Ginter, et al. 2018).
The new technological equipment help in curing several diseases by the proper diagnosis at an
early stage so the effect of the diseases can be minimized that was previously almost
impossible. The well-advanced equipment like the special keyboards, sponge knob and PDA
have helped in the case of Sally to properly diagnose and cure diseases like numbness, vision
impairments, memory loss etc (Cockerham, 2015). The employees that are working in the
healthcare sector are now effectively able to do their tasks in a less by the well versed
technological equipment and easy identification of the patient's problems.
The organizational processes are now carried out effectively as various training to the
employees are given to make them well versed with their usages. The operative processes and
the remote diagnostic have increased the level of the services provided in the organizations by
the care workers. Healthy relationships are now developed between the patients and the
service providers (Nelson and Staggers, 2016).
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