Supporting Independent Living: Technology, Barriers, and Ethics Report

This report examines the role of technology in supporting independent living within the context of health and social care. It analyzes how technology can assist individuals, like Sally, in overcoming disabilities and living fulfilling lives. The report explores the benefits of assistive technologies for both patients and healthcare organizations, while also identifying potential barriers to their implementation, such as user learning curves and organizational challenges. Furthermore, it delves into the health and safety considerations, ethical implications, and the impact of emerging technologies on health and social care services and workers. The analysis includes a discussion of specific needs and recommendations for supporting individuals to maintain their independence, evaluating the overall usefulness of technology in this context.

SUPPORTING
INDEPENDENT
LIVING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 How technology can be used to support Sally in living independently. ..............................3
1.2 Examine barriers to use technologies to provide Sally an independent life.........................4
1.3 Benefits of technologies to HSC organization and their members.......................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Analyze health and safety considerations in the use of technologies in HSC......................7
2.2 Ethical considerations in the use of assertive technologies..................................................8
2.3 Impact of recent emerging technological developments on HSC services and workers. ....9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Identify Sally's specific need for support to live independently. .........................................9
3.2 Recommend measure in order to support Sally to continue living independently.............10
3.3 Evaluate the usefulness of technology for users of health and social care services...........10
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of social health and care unit center is to provide independent lives to
the disabled people. It helps them in leading normal and regular life. Its main aim is to provide
freedom, choice, equality, control and individuality to the disabled people. Such organizations
are nonprofit organization there first and foremost attention is to provide comfort and
satisfaction to their patients. The concept of independent living is revolving around maintaining
the individuality of the person. This essay is based on the benefits and limitations of using
technologies in the health and social care units, safety considerations, ethical considerations and
impacts of emerging technological development on health and social care services.
TASK 1:
1.1 How technology can be used to support Sally in living independently.
Technological advancement in the field of science and medicine benefited people in a lot
way. It helps them to deal with their disabilities and health challenges they are facing. As per the
given case, Sally's life took a huge turn with the help of technological advancements. Changing
mentality of the individual in regard to the physically challenged people or disable people is very
important to overcome such barriers. Diversifying thinking about social attitude and equal
medical treatment of challenged people is also very crucial. Involvement of people is important
for enhancing technological development in the field of medical treatments. This will help in
maintaining social and cultural outlooks of the individual and guide them to lead independent
lives (Baharin, 2015).
In so many cases physically challenged people or disable people are not aware of the
treatment they can receive to recover with their problems or diseases. This enables them to live a
normal and productive life. As per the given case, Sally has no idea about the Assistive
Technology Specialist, after being referred to her life take a huge change as both specialist work
a lot to provide betterment in her treatment.
Other than that disable people are even not sufficient enough to afford such treatments
and medical consultations. Such surgeries and or pharmaceutical are very cost effective. It snot
that easy to afford these kind of treatments. Technologies which are used to handle or treat the

disable people or helps in providing learning and training in social health and care unit centres
are generally very high tech technologies and also very expensive (Bedaf, 2015).
Medical technologies can be considered as a combination of techniques, tools, medicines
and the methods used by health and care professionals to treat individual. Technological
advancements provide specific benefits in the treatments and diagnosing the mechanism of the
disease. Such advancements in technologies enhance the life expectancy rate of the disables
(Drummond, 2015).
The organisational members of social health and care unit centres can apply various
methods and strategies to enhance involvement of disabled people in order to provide them
better and comfortable life. Because such people are very vulnerable are they are not well aware
of treatment and consultations which can benefit them and helps them to lead a normal and
regu8la life. There are various development strategies and technologies which are introduced to
support and provide help to the patients like Sally. As per mentioned in the case she was
suffering from the multiple diseases. Some of the measure and strategies which are taken to help
the patients lead their individual lives are as follows:
 By initiating more effective treatments quality of lives of individuals has been improved.
 Now patients have facilities to live in their home rather than admitted in the hospitals.
 Convenient services provided by care homes. Diagnosis and proper analysis of the
disease is now possible.
 Treatments are now not time effective. Treatments are now more effective. Involvement
of technologies has enhanced the living pattern of the patients.
 It helps in providing betterment to the lives of the individual.
 Specialised function requires special assistance and prerequisites for the advancement of
the technologies and to ensure their effective working (Folland, 2016).
This is on relating to the given case of Sally who is recommended to use an eye patch to
combat her vision related issues. Other than this, she was assisted by a technology specialist to
resolve her issues in relation to do the daily chores at both home as well as office. For which, a
newly designed keyboard was provided to her with other additive resources to be used in the
kitchen as well as for her personal routines. Lastly, a driver’s trainer specialist assisted her to
drive in a new way.

1.2 Examine barriers to use technologies to provide Sally an independent life.
Proper assistance and examination are required whenever new technologies are
introduced, it is very important to analyse their use, benefits and limitations.
Whenever a person suffers from certain kind of disability or illness it starts hammering
their normal life. Basic and general needs of the human being are affected by such challenges. It
is duty or mai8n responsibility of the social health and care units to help such people to deal with
their problems (Heinz, 2016). There should be proper procedure and guidelines to manage or to
provide better services and treatments to the patients of the health and care unit centres. As per
the mentioned case, Sally was suffering from multiple diseases. Each and every members of the
carter centre is responsible to take care of all the patients living there. It’s their duty to make
them feel like home.
Sally's suffering from multiple diseases and it requires technological support from health
and social care services: It is very critical to identify such diseases at initial stage and uncertainty
in the diagnosis of the disease in which case, there is no recommended treatment for such
problems. There are huge symptoms and disabilities which are related to MS and Treatment is
initiated by inexperience doctors.
Diseases don't come alone; it brings depression and pain along with them. Technological
support in dealing with multiple diseases helps patients a lot in leading healthy and independent
life. It provides betterment to the lives of the individuals who are suffering from such diseases. It
also helps them in performing tasks which are related to their daily routines and helps in
enhancing self-reliance of the individual. Such techniques provide a kind of relief to the patients
who are suffering from multiples diseases and many other health related problems. With the
support of such advance treatment patients like Sally, now can lead an independent and normal
life, they can cook, drive, work and read etc. But technologies come with the barriers, while
adopting such advancement in techniques organisation has to face many issues or problems in
the form of barriers.
A major barrier that is apparent in this current case of sally is in context to learn the use
of new technologies as a way to assist her live independently rather getting dependent on
someone for support. Despite of facing issues related to vision and mobility, etc., she is now able
to work on her own due to effective technical assistance.

Organisational barriers are considered as an issues or problems which provide
hurdles in the completion of task successfully. Some of the barriers present in social health
and care units are:
Rigid perceptions of the individual related to any specific activity, event, procedure or person.
Perception about the individuals’ health or medical treatment or usage of tools or equipment for
dealing with the problems faced by the patents. Nature of the disease whether it is curable or
not. Development of psychological disorders due to onset of diseases like depression, stress or
any other emotional breakdown of the patient.
Since MS comes with a collaborative huge number of diverse symptoms and ailments
associated with central ailment, it becomes really tricky for the GPs and Assistive Technology
professionals to suggest and the usage by patients of technological interventions for each and
every problem.
Operating, managing, monitoring and collaborating organisations like social health and
care unit centres is a task of huge responsibility. In such organisations all the members have to
develop technical and interpersonal skills so that they can handle each and every situation
effectively and efficiently. Service providers and the co-workers of such organisations also have
effective communication skills so that they can understand the desires and expectations of the
service users or the patients who are living in the care units. Disable of physically challenges
people are required to handle with extra care and considerations it is very important for all the
members of the care unit to understand their desires so that they can make them feel like home.
With the introduction of ICT now patients can interact with their family members on a regular
basis and family members can also communicate with the professional in order to gain the full
information about the health and recovery of the patients (Johnson, 2014).
1.3 Benefits of technologies to HSC organisation and their members.

Benefits of using technological advancements and emerging developments for providing
support to health and care units are as follows:
Information technology and advancement of telecommunication, Decision support system,
Advancements in genetics, biotechnological developments, bioengineering developments
Introduction of technologies which helps in creating artificial body-parts and robotic surgery.
Impact of technologies on patients:
Behavioural changes and emotional quotients, developing positive attitude, enhancing
learning capabilities of the human being, helps in maintaining individuality of the patient.
Helps in leading normal and regular life, provides motivation and satisfaction
Using techniques and technologies ease the working of the organisation now members of
the care units can provide better treatment and consultation to their patients in order to make
them healthy and ensure their fast recovery. Technological advancements provide various kinds
of techniques which help in providing proper assessment and treatment to the patients.
Analysing and diagnosing disease also become much easier and faster with the help of emerging
technologies.
It ensures the fast recovery of the patients who are suffering from the long and
complicated diseases. Organisations like health and social care units required highly skilled force
to provide treatment and medication to the patients living there. It’s part of their job to make
them feel like home and provide level of comfort and satisfaction to them so that they didn't
have to suffer from issues like excess pain or emotional illness or depression. According to some
reports, usage of technologies in social health and care units provides stability and recovery in
individual’s health. It has also been seen that, because of fast recovery due to the technological
advancements patients overcome the sense of mental illness and depression. Emerging
technologies in the medical department helps such organisations in dealing with patients more
effectively and efficiently.
A vital benefit is to those who are willing to live an independent life despite of suffering
from some major health issue as in the case of Sally. In such case, it gets easier for the patients

like Sally to lead an independent life without other’s assistance and getting dependent on
someone.
TASK 2:
2.1 Analyse health and safety considerations in the use of technologies in HSC.
Operating organisations like social health and care unit centres is considered as a task of
huge responsibility. While dealing in such organisations it is very important to follow certain
norms and frameworks provided by them.
According to some reports, it has been seen that people generally go for diagnosis only
when disease start affecting their functional life. This is because of the negligence towards their
health. Training and development sessions are not conducted for every member working in an
organisation. Supervision of what one has to do, and what don't have to do is not provided to
every service provider.
In order to implement successive training measures legislative guidelines are
implemented to ensure the standards of the quality of training. There is no as such provision for
behavioural structures of the both service user and the service provider. This is to avoid
involvement of stakeholders between both sections.
Service providers of such organisation works so hard to implement emotional
relationship with the service user. This is because to make them feel like home. While dealing
with the patients of social health and care unit one should follow ethics to ensure the proper flow
of work. It is very important to implement skills and abilities regularly to establish stability in
the working. It is also important for the members of the social health and care units to develop
skills which help them to deal with the emergency situations. Difficult considerations of the job
become more critical because of the automation (Varshney, 2014).
It is very crucial to ensure that whatever technology is being applied by the service
providers of social health and care unit should be well tested and ensures guarantee in results.
This is to discuss upon the health and safety related considerations at the time of using
technologies in HSC. It has been found that a large set of technology users are apparent to suffer
from eye strain, neck and back pain due to sitting jobs. Headaches due to a stressful environment
and wrist pain that occurs due to the use of desktop and laptops at work. Lastly, there together
exists concerns related to insomnia causing sleeping disorders in those who are facing a very
challenging phase at work. Apart from this, it also involves considerations related to the use of

various electronic appliances at work such as MRI machines and X-ray scanners, etc., that
results in producing radiation that are harmful for the healthcare professionals, at the setting.
This in turn results in causing several skin related diseases to those who are constantly operating
in such type of setting.
2.2 Ethical considerations in the use of assistive technologies.
While practising in such organisations it is very important for one to follow ethics. Safety
and security measure are very important while dealing in such organisations. In some cases, it
becomes very difficult for the professional to choose among various technologies. The main aim
of technological advancement is to provide relief and comfort to the patients and to fulfil their
specific desires. As per the given case, Health challenges faced by Sally has many outlooks, so it
become difficult for the professional sot choose the best treatment from the range of suggestion
overcome such ethical issues there are various measure organisation a follow some of them are:
Right to maintain individuality: It is the one of the most crucial right of the individual to
maintain their privacy and self-determination. The decisions taken by the patients create huge
ethical difficulty for the health professionals and the service providers.
Confidentiality: Sometimes the information’s which are related to the patients’ health is critical,
in such cases it becomes huge problem for the health and care professional to discuss it with the
patients (Lamy, 2017).
In some cases, patients are uncomfortable or not satisfied with the technology followed
by the service provider in such situation it is important for them to consult patients whether they
are satisfied with the current technology or not. The first and foremost responsibility of the
members of the social health and care centres is to provide comfort and satisfaction to their
users. A foremost ethical consideration of the healthcare professionals working in HSC is to
maintain the confidentiality of the user’s data. This is where they must store the information
securely in a way that it cannot be accessed without any consent of the service users. The service
users must hereby know the concerned bodies who will be authorised to use the information
stored about them. In addition to this, the healthcare professionals are also required to balance
among the quality of care and its efficiency. It is also with a major concern of enhancing the
access to care to build and sustain the future healthcare workforce. Lastly, there together exists a
vital ethical consideration of addressing the issues of end of life that involves handling patients

who are at their last stage and are facing difficulty in surviving with a willing sense of
intentionally ending their life.
2.3 Impact of recent emerging technological developments on HSC services and workers.
Organisations such as social health and care unit centres main focus are to provide
comfort and satisfaction to their patients. Such organisations are non-profit organisations and
they tend to work for sake of the human beings. It’s their responsibility to ensure fast recovery to
their patients. Service providers of such organisation must encompass certain level of
technological and interpersonal skills. While working in such organisations it is very essential to
emerge abilities to deal with the unstable situations and the circumstances.
Introduction of various kinds of technologies in the field of medical provides various
kinds of benefits to the patients. It helps them to recover fast and enjoy health and normal life.
Technological advancements prove to be very beneficial for organisations like social health and
acre unit centres. It helps in initiating development of such organisations.
Technologies ease the working of the service users; it helps in providing better treatment
and care of the patients. It also helps in enhancing and establishing goals and objectives of the
organisation. Modern methods of dealing with the patients facilitate the patients in various ways.
According to some reports, technologies help in due to rise in use to technologies in the working
of the social health and care unit provides tremendous benefits to their patients. It ensures fast
recovery, and helps them in leading normal and productive life (Peek, 2014).
TASK 3:
3.1 Identify Sally's specific need for support to live independently.
Patients who face multiple diseases or chronic diseases are considered as a person who
requires special and specific care. Social health and care unit centres provides specific services,
education and training to the disabled patients so that they can be sufficient enough to fulfil their
basic needs. Such patient requires proper care and attention. Such people deals with so many
emotional traumas so it is important for their service providers to deal with them efficiently.
Sally's specific needs for support to live independently are as follows:
Dis-inhibition and anxiety, Depression, Impulsiveness, Distress, Twitching
Difficulty in communication, Language issues, Distortions of memory, Dissemblance.

Symptoms related to mental illness, Sally faced following problems, and it is very necessary to
provide her specific treatment so that she can overcome health issues faced by her.
Sally was not able to drive and she was not able to help children the in their school activities,
problem in typing and facing issues in conducting daily routine activities of the life.
Special care is important for the Sally's independence:
Changes in working culture will ease her life, fulfilling her needs and requirements.
Therapies for providing efficient communication to her. Training for public and social manner.
Enhancement in capability and efficiency.
3.2 Recommend measure in order to support Sally to continue living independently.
There are some measures which can support Sally to live her life independently. She can
use message reminders or electronic reminders or voice recording messages. Digital clocks and
digital calendars will keep her aware about the time and date. First aid boxes or medicated aids
which help her in keeping all the relative medicines and medications used by her. She can also
use digital location devices to track her surroundings. Tele-care, it will help her in dealing with
the difficult situations and helps to handle her life in unstable circumstances. One of the most
impactful gadgets Sally can use is MAT (Movement Assistive Technology) it will help her in
assisting her movements and helps her in dealing with complicated situations. By using this
advance technological devices Sally can lead an independent and secure life (Valentine, 2015).
3.3 Evaluate the usefulness of technology for users of health and social care services.
Introduction of technologies in the field of care units provides various facilities to the
patients like Sally. Some benefits of advancement in technologies are as follows:
Now patients can stay at their homes rather than being admitted in the hospitals, time taken by
professional to cure patients has been reduced, advance medicines, benefits to the people who
are disable. Introduction of the technologies in the field of health and care organization will
facilitate the organization as well as the patients. Advancement in technologies will ensure
stability in the working of an organization. It will provide effective treatment to the patients so
that they can receive fast recovery and be able to regulate normal and productive life. It also
helps in changing the social attitude of the patients towards their life. Technological
advancement proves to be very efficient in the field of social health and care unit’s centers
(Ruan, 2016).

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that technologies play huge role in
advancements of social health and care centers. It has also been seen emerging technologies in
such fields are sufficient enough for providing healthy and meaningful life to the physically
challenged people or disabled. Technologies provides various sources to the lives of the
individual which helps them to lead their basic and regular life, persons with disabilities and
difficulties requires special care and assessment is that they can also lead a productive life.
Feedback from HNHS 120: Lecture Note
You have tried to attempt all assessment criteria.Lo1.(1.1) is quiet basic and needs more attention.2.1 &2.2
You need to talk about health and safety consideration and ethical considerations.You did started but could n't
explain much.
LO3..clearly STATED IN CLASS ..NEED TO USE MAGGIE'S CASE STUDY.Please see me if you need any
guidance.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Baharin, H., 2015. SonicAIR: Supporting independent living with reciprocal ambient audio
awareness. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 22(4). p.18.
Bedaf, S., 2015. Overview and categorization of robots supporting independent living of elderly
people: what activities do they support and how far have they developed. Assistive
Technology. 27(2). pp.88-100.
Byles, J.E., 2014. Supporting housing and neighbourhoods for healthy ageing: Findings from the
Housing and Independent Living Study (HAIL). Australasian journal on ageing. 33(1).
pp.29-35.
Drummond, M.F.,2015. Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes.
Oxford university press.
Folland, S., 2016. The Economics of Health and Health Care: Pearson International Edition.
Routledge.
Heinz, M., 2016. The Potential of Three Computer-Based Communication Activities for
Supporting Older Adult Independent Living. Information. 7(2). p.26.
Johnson, D.O., 2014. Socially assistive robots: a comprehensive approach to extending
independent living. International journal of social robotics. 6(2). pp.195-211.
Lamy, E., 2017. SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT LIVING THROUGH THE PREDICTION
AND PREVENTION OF FALLS.
Peek, S.T., 2014. Factors influencing acceptance of technology for aging in place: a systematic
review. International journal of medical informatics. 83(4). pp.235-248.
Ruan, W., 2016, March. Unobtrusive human localization and activity recognition for supporting
independent living of the elderly. In Pervasive Computing and Communication
Workshops (PerCom Workshops), 2016 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 1-3).
IEEE.
Valentine, M.A., 2015. Measuring teamwork in health care settings: a review of survey
instruments. Medical care. 53(4). pp.e16-e30.
Varshney, U., 2014. Mobile health: Four emerging themes of research. Decision Support
Systems. 66. pp.20-35.
Online

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