SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT LIVING ASSIGNMENT GUIDE

TASK 1 – Essay           Word count: 1000                                                                                   

Using Case study 1

1.1  Explain how technology can be used to support users of health and social care services in living independently.

To answer this question:

• Define independent living (reference properly)
• Explain who the users of health and social care services are
• Explain the meaning of assistive technology in health and social care
• Describe the assistive technologies provided to Sally to live independently ( Case study 1) and the support they provided

1.2  Analyse barriers to the use of technology to support users of health and social care services in living independently.

To answer this question:

• Mention and explain barriers of assistive technologies in supporting independent living in Health and Social Care practice
• Explain the challenges Sally (Case study 1) is likely to face in using the assistive technology she was provided with
• Explain how barriers to the use of assistive technology in supporting independent living can be limited

1.3  Explain the benefits of these technologies to health and social care organisations and their users.

To answer this question:

• Explain the benefits of assistive technology to users of health and social care and their carers (family, friends)
• Explain how Sally (case study 1) benefited from the assistive technology she was provided with
• Explain the advantages of assistive technologies to health and social care organisations (example, care homes, hospital, schools)

TASK 2 – Essay

Using case study 1        Word count: 1000                                                                                   

2.1 Explain health and safety considerations in the use of technologies in health and social care.

To answer this question:

• Explain Health and Safety legislation 1974
• Explain what should be considered when using assistive technologies in health and social care practice (example hospitals, care homes, client’s homes, schools) according to the Health and safety legislation
• Describe the health and safety considerations in supporting Sally (case study 1) with assistive technology

2.2 Discuss ethical considerations in the use of assistive technologies

To answer this question:

• Define ethics
• Explain ethical considerations in the use of assistive technologies in health and social care
• Explain the benefits of following ethical guidelines in supporting users of health and social care with assistive technologies
• Explain the implications (disadvantages) of not following ethical guidelines in using assistive technologies in health and social care practice
• Recommend ways compliance to ethics in the use of assistive technologies can be promoted

2.3 Explain the impact of recent and emerging technological developments on health and social care services, organisations and care workers

To answer this question:

• Describe emerging assistive technologies used to support users of health and social care
• Explain the positive and negative impacts of emerging assistive technologies to:

1. Care workers
2.  Organisations (hospitals, care homes, schools)

TASK 3 – Mini report      Word count: 1000                                                                                   

Provide introduction to the report: give a brief summary of the content of your report

 Using case study 2:

3.1  Identify Maggie’s specific needs and

To answer this question:

• Explain/define specific needs
• Briefly explain the needs of people with dementia
• Explain Maggie’s specific needs (Case study 2)

3.2  Recommend assistive devices to support Maggie to continue living independently

3.3 Evaluate the usefulness of technology for users of health and social care services

To answer this question:

• Briefly explain the benefits of assistive technology to health and social care organisations (hospitals, care homes, supported housing) and clients (elderly, disabled)
• Give example (2 or more) of assistive technology explaining the positives and negatives
• Explain how certain types of assistive technology will be useful to Maggie, also explain the type of AT that may not be useful to Maggie due to Dementia
• Considering Maggie’s health problem (Dementia), explain how technology may not promote her independence as her illness advances (deteriorates)
• Summarise and conclude your report

Case Study 1:

  Sally is a 42-year-old female who presents to her GP with complaints of tingling and numbness in her left foot, 18 months later she also complained of double vision. Consultation with a neurologist at that time results in a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. She is placed on disease-modulating medication and educated about lifestyle changes to avoid fatigue, which manages her double vision, with the exception of long workdays. The GP refers her to a vision specialist for management of the impairment of double vision that interferes with activities and participation in her job as an account executive. The GP has also requested the assistive technology specialist to provide information and education about other assistive devices that are available should she develop additional impairments.

A vision specialist recommends an eye patch for use when warranted and suggests she stay in touch with the assistive technology specialist should other problems arise. Two years later, Sally returns to her GP with complaints of weakness and numbness in her right side (upper and lower body). These new impairments interfere with her ability to drive to and from work and chauffeur her children to soccer and other after-school activities. Her function at work has been greatly compromised as well. She is experiencing difficulty with typing, maneuvering around the building, holding her lunch tray, and performing other activities of daily living. She is referred to the Occupation Therapist for an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) for the right foot and a cane to improve her mobility, and she is also referred to the Assistive Technology Specialist for consideration of alternate input methods for the keyboard. A keyboard was chosen that covered a larger surface with large black letters surrounded by a yellow background. Both specialists worked together to identify other aids to facilitate additional activities, such as Sally’s personal care activities using a dressing stick and toothbrush handles; cooking using kitchen aids, including jar openers, recipe card holders, and large-handled pots and pans; and gardening using adapted gardening tools.

The GP refers her to a driver’s trainer specialist to adapt her vehicle with a spinner knob and left foot accelerator and to train her in this new way of driving. At this time, the GP also referred her to a social worker for support and counseling regarding her finances, work, and personal life decisions.

Throughout the previous 4 years, Sally’s family has noticed changes in her memory function. After the psychologist completes a cognitive evaluation and identifies strengths and weaknesses, Sally is provided a hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA), called the “PocketCoach,” to aid in her memory skills. This device enables her to push a single button to remember “what to do next.” It assists her to remember to complete task activities and to manage important aspects of her healthcare, such as taking medications and nutritional supplements.

Task 3: Mini Report

Case Study 2:

Maggie is a 62 year old lady who has early onset dementia. She recently lost her husband. She is an extremely active lady who goes out on a number of occasions each day. She is disorientated to the day and time. Her family has significant concerns that Maggie is leaving her home at night and reports from her neighbour confirm this. A fortnight ago her daughter, Lisa paid her a visit and she found water flowing out of her door. When she pressed the door bell there was no answer because Maggie was not home. On occasions homecare arrive early in the morning and Maggie is already out which means she can miss taking her medication and is skipping meals. A risk assessment highlighted an unknown prevalence of Maggie leaving her home.

Essay

Technology has brought number of changes in healthcare services and delivery. Technology has enabled patients to live their life in a better way. With technology, the concepts of independent living and assistive living have also evolved. Independent living, as seen by its advocates, is a philosophy, a way of looking at disability and society, and a worldwide movement of people with disabilities working for self-determination, self-respect and equal opportunities (Larsson, 2011). In the context of eldercare, independent living is seen as a step in the continuum of care, with assisted living being the next step. Most of the times, the users of health and social care services are the patients living independently. These are the people that live alone and require the assistance of other people. To meet this demand, the concept of assistive living was established. Typically assistive living is provided for people with disabilities. There are dedicated ALF (Assisted Living Facility) and ALH (Assisted Living Homes) that are being used to provide accommodation and support to people with disabilities (Aloise, 2008). It is important for government and private care institutions to realize the need of patients and develop the assistive program for people with disabilities. The case study presented the situation of Sally whose life is manageable with the help of technology. It can be said that technology has enabled Sally to live independently. There were certain assistive technologies that were recommended to Sally in order to live in a better way. Sally was provided a bigger keyboard as the basic assistive technology. This keyboard has a larger surface area that enabled Sally to type even with limited vision. Sally was also provided a dressing stick and toothbrush handles; cooking using kitchen aids, including jar openers, recipe card holders, and large-handled pots and pans; and gardening using adapted gardening tools. All these small tools should also be considered as assistive technologies provided to Sally. The most important and useful assistive technology comes in form of hand held personal digital assistant (PDA). This assistive technology helped Sally to live her life in a controlled way even when she had memory problems. This PDA was an important assistive technology and was known as pocket coach.

It can be said that technology has helped number of patients. The concept of assistive living and independent living would not have been possible without the spread of technology (Mitchell, 2009). However, any technological advancement is also linked with some barriers and challenges. One of major barriers of assistive technologies in supporting independent living in Health and Social Care practice is training program. It is never easy to teach patients the method to use assistive device or tool. For example, Sally would realize that PDA device would help her to overcome her memory issues. But it would be difficult for Sally to learn all the features of personal device. This barrier can be overcome with an effective training program. It is important that the training for people with disabilities should be developed in a simple manner (Yeager, 2008). Another challenge or barrier of assistive challenges could be the cost associated with the device. It is fortune that Sally can afford the cost of PDA and other tools of assistive technology but all the patients cannot afford this cost. Typically any device that provides assistive technology is costly and it is not easy to find the devices. The mismatch between the demand and the supply is also a challenge with assistive technologies. There also exists a social barrier or challenge associated with assistive technologies. It can be that a certain section of society can be reluctant to accept the people with assistive technology. It is not a desired thing but it is observed that some level of discrimination can arise with the use of assistive technology. Sally would be able to live a better life with assistive technology but it could be possible that some people in the society would not like Sally. This barrier could be removed by spreading the word about the assistive technology. It is important that society should be made aware of assistive technologies and independent living.

The assistive technologies have various benefits to offer to different stakeholders. These technologies are helpful not only for patients but also to health and social care organizations. The users of the assistive technologies get the benefit in a way that their life gets easy. The family and friends of patients also gets the benefits as their headache is reduced. Without assistive technology a lot depend on the family and nurses. It can be said that assistive technology has made the life of nurses and family easy (Forlizzi, 2009). Sally is already 42 years of age and she was getting so many problems for her vision and memory. The assistive technologies helped her to bring her life on the track. With the support of assistive technologies, Sally was able to drive. It can be said that Sally would be living her life in a nursing care without assistive technology. The management and control of people is very difficult without the use of technology.  The health care institutions would have to find the people or nurses with specific skills in order to manage all the patients. With the penetration of assistive technology, this dependent has reduced. It can be said that assistive technology is not the solution for everything but assistive technology has definitely helped the hospitals and health care institutions to manage the patients with dementia and other patients. It is expected that the use of assistive technology would only increase in future as more and more people would be covered under this program. The benefits of assistive technology are numerous and it is important that the health care institutions should work hard in order to deliver these values to end customers or patients.

References

Bharucha, A. J., Anand, V., Forlizzi, J., Dew, M. A., Reynolds, C. F., Stevens, S., & Wactlar, H. (2009). Intelligent assistive technology applications to dementia care: current capabilities, limitations, and future challenges. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry, 17(2), 88-104.

Borg, J., Larsson, S., & Östergren, P. O. (2011). The right to assistive technology: For whom, for what, and by whom?. Disability & Society, 26(2), 151-167.

Cincotti, F., Mattia, D., Aloise, F., Bufalari, S., Schalk, G., Oriolo, G., … & Babiloni, F. (2008). Non-invasive brain–computer interface system: towards its application as assistive technology. Brain research bulletin, 75(6), 796-803.

Kaye, H. S., Yeager, P., & Reed, M. (2008). Disparities in usage of assistive technology among people with disabilities. Assistive Technology, 20(4), 194-203.

Wilson, D. J., Mitchell, J. M., Kemp, B. J., Adkins, R. H., & Mann, W. (2009). Effects of assistive technology on functional decline in people aging with a disability. Assistive Technology, 21(4), 208-217.

Essay

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974  (also referred to as HSWA, the HSW Act, the 1974 Act or HASAWA) is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain.  The government of UK initiated this act but other governments also introduced this act in their country. It is an important act that ensured that the health of patients should be taken into consideration. There are certain parameters that should be considered while using the assistive technologies in health and social care practices. There are three main stakeholders in the use of assistive technologies. These are users or patients, hospitals or care homes or nursing homes and society at large (Reed, 2008). The patients should consider the care that is given to them through assistive technologies. The users of assistive technologies should realize that their way of living gets improved with the use of assistive technology. The second stakeholders in assistive technology are hospitals and nursing cares. The management of stakeholders should realize that the care of patients should be the first agenda and top most priority of nursing cares. It is never easy for nurses or hospitals attendants to handle the people who require assistive care. It is also important that the people providing nursing care should also have effective training program. The training program should focus on the training of nurses and training of users. It is important that nurses and doctors should also provide training to users of assistive care. The case study presented the case of Sally. She has been using assistive care and technology to love a normal life. It can be said that assistive care is one of the reasons that Sally has been able to lead a normal life. The people who would provide training to Sally should consider the condition of Sally. The assistive technology like PDA has the potential to improve the life of Sally and many other patients like her. It is important that the nursing care homes and hospitals should work under the laws and regulation while providing assistive care to users like Sally and other users.

One of the important aspects to consider in assistive care and the health care policies is the ethical consideration. Health care ethics (a/k/a “medical” ethics or “bioethics”), at its simplest, is a set of moral principles, beliefs and values that guide us in making choices about medical care. It is important that all the stakeholders should realize the importance of ethics. In the field of medical and health care services, ethics should be defined in terms of individual aspect and organizational aspect. The ethical consideration in the use of assistive technology should also be defined from the point of view of different stakeholders. The ethical consideration for hospitals and nursing care homes should focus to provide transparent health care services to all the users. The ethical consideration for users should be the way they would get the assistive care. It is important that the users of assistive care should have ethical practices while taking the assistive care. The users of assistive care should not present the wrong issues. It is important that the users of assistive care should show high standards while taking the assistive care. It is important that all the stakeholders of assistive care should show high ethical standards. It could happen only when there exists ethical guidelines that should be followed by all the stakeholders (Kemp, 2009). It is important that the hospitals and nursing cares should define the ethical guidelines. These ethical guidelines should be communicated to all the stakeholders of assistive care. One of the benefits of following ethical guidelines is that things would be standardized with the establishment of guidelines. With the establishment of ethical guidelines all the nurses would have a clear agenda and all the users would also be aware of the standards set by hospitals and nursing care. One of the disadvantages of not following the ethical guidelines is that there would be no means to check and control in the absence of ethical guidelines (Borg, 2011). It is recommended that all the stakeholders of assistive care should have compliance procedures in place. It is important that all the institutions should set up their own compliance procedures that would be internal in nature.

There have been several technological advancements in the field of assistive care. Some of these emerging technologies would include the use of Personal devices like PDA, use of small machines and devices that could be used by users. Google Glass has also been seen as an important assistive technology. The assistive technology in this world of globalization would be any technology that can help users to make life easy. The assistive technology in current generation would also be mainstream mobile devices. The users of assistive technology have realized that mobile devices could also be used to help users (Anand, 2009). The development of assistive technology could have both positive and negative impacts on care workers and organization. One of the positive impacts of use of emerging technologies in assistive care is that the life of users and nurses can improve a lot. With the technological evolving products it is comparatively easy to provide assistive care. With the technological evolving products in the field of assistive care, organizations would also have certain benefits. The technological advancements would be additional assets for organization. Most of the new and emerging technologies are in the field of digital media. People to have a track of their time can use the devices such as digital calendars. It is important the users group of assistive technology should know the ways to devices. It can be said that the impact of assistive technology has been great on all the stakeholders and it is expected that assistive technology would continue to have an influence on healthcare services and healthcare delivery.

References

Bharucha, A. J., Anand, V., Forlizzi, J., Dew, M. A., Reynolds, C. F., Stevens, S., & Wactlar, H. (2009). Intelligent assistive technology applications to dementia care: current capabilities, limitations, and future challenges. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry, 17(2), 88-104.

Borg, J., Larsson, S., & Östergren, P. O. (2011). The right to assistive technology: For whom, for what, and by whom?. Disability & Society, 26(2), 151-167.

Cincotti, F., Mattia, D., Aloise, F., Bufalari, S., Schalk, G., Oriolo, G., … & Babiloni, F. (2008). Non-invasive brain–computer interface system: towards its application as assistive technology. Brain research bulletin, 75(6), 796-803.

Kaye, H. S., Yeager, P., & Reed, M. (2008). Disparities in usage of assistive technology among people with disabilities. Assistive Technology, 20(4), 194-203.

Wilson, D. J., Mitchell, J. M., Kemp, B. J., Adkins, R. H., & Mann, W. (2009). Effects of assistive technology on functional decline in people aging with a disability. Assistive Technology, 21(4), 208-217.

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

Maggie’s specific needs…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Usefulness of technology………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Introduction

Dementia is a very serious disease and hospital cares and nursing homes have realized the importance of this disease. One of the challenges with this disease is that the people may not realize the wrong things that they would do under the influence of disease. Dementia is a type of brain disease in which people have the tendency to forget things (Mattia, 2008). People under the influence of dementia may not be able to make correct choices. One of the challenges of dementia is that the normal and daily life of people also gets affected due to this disease. As mentioned in the case study, Maggie is suffering from dementia. It is important that nursing staff takes proper care of Maggie. The objective of this report is to discuss the specific needs of Maggie under dementia and discuss the use of assistive technologies for people under the influence of dementia.

Analysis

It can be said that dementia is one of those medical problems that is difficult to treat. People like Maggie have always found it difficult to manage their lives. As mentioned in the case study, Maggie is an outbound person and she likes to go out. Sometimes he is out at night. There are cases when nursing staff would visit the home in the morning and would not find Maggie. It can be said that Maggie has been missing her medication also. It can be said that Maggie has certain specific needs that should be addresses. The specific needs of Maggie can be discussed as:

Maggie’s specific needs

Typically, specific needs are the particular needs that are the requirement of particular patients.  The specific needs are not the same for patients with cancer and people with dementia. One of the important specific needs of people with dementia is the need and support of family member or nurse of health professional. The specific need of Maggie in this case is to have a support staff that could remain with Maggie 24X7. The term ‘assistive technology’ refers to ‘any device or system that allows an individual to perform a task that they would otherwise be unable to do, or increases the ease and safety with which the task can be performed. There are certain assistive devices that could be used to support Maggie. Generally people under dementia use Reminder messages (Östergren, 2011). With this assistive technology people would get the voice message every time they would leave the home or enter the home. Another important assistive technology that could be used in this case would be digital clock and calendars. With clock and calendars, users would be able to keep a track of all the activities that they are doing.  It can be said that assistive technologies have played a critical role to simplify the life of people under dementia. The basic assistive technologies have been useful not only for patients but also for people providing care to patients (Yeager, 2008). The usefulness of technology for users of health and social care services can be discussed as:

Usefulness of technology

One of the biggest benefits of assistive technology is that it promotes independence for the users and the people around the users. It means that with the use of assistive technology the life of Maggie would be improved and at the same time the life of people around Maggie would also improve. With assistive technology the life of health care professionals around Maggie would also improve, as it would mean less control (Reynolds, 2009). The assistive technology devices like wheelchair are common in use for elder age people. Few examples of assistive technologies can be discussed as:

• Hearing aid is a very common assistive device that is being used by people who have hearing problem. One of the major benefit of this assistive device is that it can help people to hear the things that otherwise would not have been possible. One of the disadvantages of this device could be that it creates a dependency.
• Another very common example of assistive device is wheel chair. This device is being used by people who have difficult to walk. One of the biggest advantages of this device is that, it helps people to mover from place to another. The only disadvantage of this device is that it can also make people dependent (Wilson, 2009).

The assistive technology that would be useful for Maggie would be digital assistive technology. It is important that Maggie should not miss her medication. There are medication devices that would help Maggie to take her medicine on time. The alarm would be set at the time of medication and this would help Maggie to take her medicine. Some of the assistive technology that may not be useful for Maggie would be hearing aid, speaking aid etc. Dementia is a serious problem and Maggie has already crossed 60 years of age. It is important that Maggie should not have a casual attitude for her illness. It is observed that the problem of dementia gets serious with age. Technology and assistive devices would be able to support Maggie but this support would not be an endless support. It is important that Maggie should also get the support of individuals and personal.

Conclusions

The above report discussed the specific needs of people with dementia and it also discussed the role of assistive technology and assistive devices. The case of Maggie is a common case where patient is not aware of the activities performed by him or her. It is important that the patients like Maggie should get the support of assistive technology like digital calendars, location devices, medication devices etc. It would ensure that patients are under control.

References

Bharucha, A. J., Anand, V., Forlizzi, J., Dew, M. A., Reynolds, C. F., Stevens, S., & Wactlar, H. (2009). Intelligent assistive technology applications to dementia care: current capabilities, limitations, and future challenges. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry, 17(2), 88-104.

Borg, J., Larsson, S., & Östergren, P. O. (2011). The right to assistive technology: For whom, for what, and by whom?. Disability & Society, 26(2), 151-167.

Cincotti, F., Mattia, D., Aloise, F., Bufalari, S., Schalk, G., Oriolo, G., … & Babiloni, F. (2008). Non-invasive brain–computer interface system: towards its application as assistive technology. Brain research bulletin, 75(6), 796-803.

Kaye, H. S., Yeager, P., & Reed, M. (2008). Disparities in usage of assistive technology among people with disabilities. Assistive Technology, 20(4), 194-203.

Wilson, D. J., Mitchell, J. M., Kemp, B. J., Adkins, R. H., & Mann, W. (2009). Effects of assistive technology on functional decline in people aging with a disability. Assistive Technology, 21(4), 208-217.