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Fully equipped: equipment for older or disabled people
- Author:
- AUDIT COMMISSION
- Publisher:
- Audit Commission
- Publication year:
- 2001
- Pagination:
- 102p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Abingdon
More than four million disabled people use equipment services, which can be gateways to independence and improved quality of life for both users and carers. This report looks at how the service is operating within the NHS. It introduces the service and goes on to focus on these specific areas: orthotic services; prosthetic services; wheelchair and seating services; community equipment services; and audiology services. Concludes with recommendations for the future.
The potential of technology to ease the care provider's burden
- Author:
- MANN William C.
- Journal article citation:
- Generations, 25(1), Spring 2001, pp.44-48.
- Publisher:
- American Society on Aging
High technology homecare has been defined as "those in-home methods of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation that are physically embodied in specialised equipment and related supplies and services". This article will discuss several categories of assistive devices that render caregiving physically or emotionally easier, including those that assist with basic activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, environmental control, and monitoring of health and behaviour.
The social and psychological aspects of smart home technology within the care sector
- Author:
- DEWSBURY Guy
- Journal article citation:
- New Technology in the Human Services, 14(1/2), 2001, pp.9-17.
- Publisher:
- Centre for Human Service Technology
Technological innovations within the home are nothing new. The introduction of the radio, through to the current rise of computer technology have affected the way in which people interact with their environment and between each other. The advent of ‘smart’ technology for the home has been welcomed by the minority and shunned by the majority, being perceived as unreliable and too ‘sci-fi’. Orwelian conceptions of the home as a locus of extended social control, no doubt, also affect the acceptance of technology into the fabric of the house. Alienation from this form of technology might have also arisen as a by-product of the way it has been introduced and marketed. Many people with disabilities and older persons might feel that they are not included in discussions on technology, as it is perceived as irrelevant to their needs. There is little doubt in the mind of the author that this pessimistic view will decrease and acceptance will occur when the technology no longer holds the associations and values associated with the sci-fi label and is used within the care field appropriately. This paper considers how the technology can be used in the provision of extending care for people with disabilities or older people. It considers the efficacy of approach and its potential consequences. The observations within this paper stem from undertaking a number of workshops and consultations on the use of smart home technology within the social care field. Within these consultations, certain common themes evolved from the discussions that the author attempts to address here. Most frequently, the issues centred on the relationship between technology and the person with disabilities.
Design with care
- Authors:
- CHEVERST Keith, et al
- Journal article citation:
- New Technology in the Human Services, 14(1/2), 2001, pp.39-47.
- Publisher:
- Centre for Human Service Technology
This paper is primarily about design and some of the difficulties of ‘appropriate’ design in care settings: about the interaction between technologies, application domains, design methodologies and about some of the challenges of informing design. This is hardly a novel concern, but this particular focus arises as a consequence of digital technologies maturing and transferring to the everyday domain; as the convergence of interactive digital systems, networks and mobile devices potentially transforms the ways that we carry out mundane, everyday activities. In recent years, the increasing presence of computing technology in the domestic environment has emerged as an important new arena of study. Domestic environments are becoming key sites for the consumption of information and communication technologies - embracing, in the ‘care’ domain, various forms of ‘assistive’ technologies and the design and provision of ‘smart’ homes. This paper reports on a recently initiated research project ‘Care in the Digital Community’ - begun under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Dependability Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (DIRC) Network project EQUATOR. The project aims to use a multidisciplinary research team to facilitate the development of enabling technologies to assist care in the community for particular user groups with different support needs. The general objective is to examine how digital technology can be used to support sheltered housing residents and their staff. Although only recently started, the project anticipates exploring the affordances of a variety of technological configurations, including the use of virtual environments replicating real world situations, and the use of handheld and wearable digital technology to provide support.
Technology in practice: issues and implications
- Author:
- GILLIARD Jane
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Dementia Care, 9(6), November 2001, pp.18-19.
- Publisher:
- Hawker
Discusses person-centered technology in dementia care.
Money matters: a system fraught with glaring inequality
- Author:
- POINTON Barbara
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Dementia Care, 9(6), November 2001, pp.27-29.
- Publisher:
- Hawker
Analyses the system of funding and benefits for people with dementia and their carers that rarely seem to help the people they are intended for.
Gardening in retirement
- Author:
- SALT Bernard
- Publisher:
- Age Concern
- Publication year:
- 2001
- Pagination:
- 160p.,illus.
- Place of publication:
- London
Guide to gardening, aimed specifically at retired people. Contains help for those who experience difficulties with everyday tasks. Covers both organic and conventional approaches to gardening. Subjects covered include patios, lawns, borders, greenhouses, trees, fruit and vegetables. Safety, recycling, care of wildlife and the environment are also emphasised.
Frankenstein homes: would you want to live in one?
- Author:
- TAYLOR Bruce J.
- Journal article citation:
- New Technology in the Human Services, 14(1/2), 2001, pp.28-38.
- Publisher:
- Centre for Human Service Technology
The media have, in some instances, portrayed smart houses as Frankenstein homes that could potentially run amok with ruinous if not necessarily fatal consequences. Smart homes turn a simple robust system, a house, into a complex tightly coupled system, which means that the potential for failure is increased beyond that predicted by conventional risk analysis. There is some justification in these sensational media stories about smart homes. Furthermore, the lay persons perception of risk is based, not on the absolute risk assessments of experts, but on three more or less independent factors: dread risk, unknown risk, societal and personal exposure.
From caring home to smart house - a needs led evolution
- Authors:
- BRADLEY D.A., LEVY S., BROWNSELL S.J.
- Journal article citation:
- New Technology in the Human Services, 14(1/2), 2001, pp.18-27.
- Publisher:
- Centre for Human Service Technology
A persons’ home provides them with a sense of security, familiarity and belonging, all of which contribute to the extent to which they feel that they have control over their life. In recent years technology has established an increased presence in this environment enabling (older) people to benefit from the use of systems, including community alarms, to make their lives more manageable. The Smart House concept is seen by some technology champions as an obvious progression of home healthcare technology, enabling the house to facilitate the support necessary to enable individuals to remain in their own home rather than being forced into a sheltered or institutional setting. Yet it may be argued that care provision through the medium of a Smart House transforms what is essentially an individually crafted environment into a fully operational extension of a clinical environment while losing crucial elements associated with an individual’s personal space. Home care technology that ‘grows with you’ rather than a Smart House that must ‘grow on you’ should therefore be the goal for work to find a technical solution to bridging the gap between available resources and demands on healthcare providers. This paper considers the need for home healthcare technologies and the ways in which they may evolve while introducing the concept of a ‘Technology Prescription’. This mode of future ‘smart’ care provision is suggested as a means of matching user need to appropriate technology, as part of a needs led approach which would allow for the gradual introduction of specific care technologies into a familiar home environment.
Living independently: linking housing and care services for older people
- Author:
- ADAMS Sue
- Journal article citation:
- Housing Care and Support, 4(2), May 2001, pp.19-23.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The vast majority of older people (90%) live in the general housing stock and 70% are owner occupiers. One of the major challenges for planners in the housing, health and social care sectors is the development of a coherent joint strategy which enables older people to live independently in their own homes. Home improvement agencies (HIAs) aim to meet the housing and related support needs of mainly older home-owners. Research carried out by Care and Repair England has been tracking and studying the diversification of HIAs into services areas which 'cross the housing and care divide'. The results of this work have recently been published. They demonstrate both the range and the extent of new service provision by HIAs and its value both to older people wishing to 'stay put' and to planners charged with implementing cross-sector work and prevention strategies.