The Use Of Technology In Supporting Independent Living: A Case Study

Case Study 1: Sally’s Experience with Multiple Sclerosis

In recent years, technology has become one of the most valuable companion for the people who are living independently in their home. It is very important for those people, who are living independently in their own place, to have an assistive system and it can help them in maintain their daily life activities like cooking, dressing. In this essay, the case study of 42 year-old female name Sally is discussed. She is complaining about numbness and tingling sensation in her left foot.  In addition, she also had the problem of double vision. After two years of this incident, Sally had reported to her GP that she had weakness and numbness in the upper and lower portion of right side of her body as well. This new problem of Sally, caused alteration in her driving, chauffeur her children to the soccer and other various activities like after school activities. She had also faced various difficulties in working in her work place as well. In this essay, the use of various technologies in case of Sally is discussed. In addition, there may be various difficulties in using the technologies and that is also highlighted in this essay. However, there are various benefits in using modern technologies and the benefits of using modern technologies in case of Sally is also described in this essay.

• From the case study it is seen that, Sally had the problem of multiple sclerosis (MS) and it was diagnosed by a neurologist. MS is an autoimmune disease in which the myelin sheath of the neurons in the central nervous system is eliminated by the auto-reactive T-cells. As a deletion of the myelin sheath, the neurons become exposed and they lose their ability of carrying electrical signals from one neuron to another. This also results in slowness of various motor activities, loss of cognitive functions.  As a result of the MS, Sally also had problems in her eyes, gradually losing her mobility in her right side of the body that is the right side of her body became weak and numb. Even, she was having problems in walking, driving, and holding her plate of lunch in her work place. Sally complained that she had problems in typing. She was referred to eye specialist, occupation therapist and also to Assistive technology specialist. In this case study, as it was seen that, Sally she had problems in roaming and she was suggested to use a cane to improve her mobility. In addition to this high-performance, low-weight mobility devices can be used and it can help the persons like Sally to be active physically and also in some cases such devices will help the persons with disabilities to play a few kind of games (Hess  2018). This kind of device can be used in case of Sally as she wanted to go to soccer classes with her children.  Sally also had the problems of double vision and she was suggested to use an eye patch when warranted. Along with this, she was told to come for a check-up for her eyes. To solve the typing problem of Sally, she given a different type of keyboard in which the letters are black and large with a yellow background. In addition to this, screen readers, voice recognition programs can be used in case of persons like Sally. In order to resolve the problem of vision, screen enlargement program can also be installed in the system (Alharbi 2016). Sally also had problems in eating that is she had faced difficulties in holding her plate in her workplace. To help Sally in this matter, the technology of utensils and adaptive switches can be used. In order to help Sally in her personal care, various activities like using of toothbrush handles, dressing sticks, recipe card holders, using of customized handles or grips, devices that can enhance the reach of Sally, lights on telephones can be used to help Sally.
• There are various factors that can be act as a barrier in using technology in order to support users of health and social services who are living independently in their place. The barriers that can affect mostly are as below-

• Lack of funds in accessing assistive technology
• Lack of proper knowledge related to the new technology
• Problems in using assistive technology due to physical problems
• Lack of appropriate devices
• Lack of knowledge in usability of the product of new technology (Weerasinghe et al. 2015)
• In case of using a customized keyboard, the user may face problems associated with the new orientation of the keys and spacing of the keys on the keyboard (Ampratwum,  Offei  and Ntoaduro 2016).
  • Moreover, the use of technologies in independent living is very much effective for the persons like Sally who have difficulties in their activities of daily life. It can be said that, by using the technologies Sally can get various benefits in doing her activities. By using assistive technologies related to the vision impairment, it can be said that Sally can overcome her problem of vision impairment that is the double vision. On the other hand, by using a cane or other light-weight devices that helps in motor functions, Sally can move in her work place in a better manner. In addition, using of various technologies related to activity of daily life in her house would ease the Sally’s work burden. Not only this, but by using different type of customized keyboard would help Sally in resolving the problems of typing in her workplace. Sally was using a personal digital assistant device (PDA) and it helped Sally to remember her activities. Using of specially designed vehicle with spinner knob and left foot accelerator would help Sally to resolve the problem of driving by her own (Alharbi 2016).

Lastly it can be concluded that, the use of various technologies for those who are living independently are very much important. Although there are various hindrances in the way of implementing the new technologies. Moreover, if those barriers can be removed with proper methods and once those hindrances are overcome, those technologies will ultimately help the independently living persons.

The use of technology can enhance the quality of the lifestyle of Sally as she faced various problems in her working life as well as in her personal life. In order to support Sally, in her working life and in personal life it is very important to use various technologies.  Although, technology will help Sally in her daily life activities, there may be some issues related to the health and safety of Sally while using the technology in her daily life. In addition, to use various technologies it is very important to maintain ethical considerations. There is no doubt that, the use of various technologies has eased the work of social care service givers, care workers who are engaging in giving social care services. In this essay, the health and safety considerations in using technology for Sally is discussed. In addition ethical considerations for using various assistive technologies is also highlighted. Lastly, the impact of developments of technologies on the care givers, social care services are also discussed in this essay.

Task 1: The Role of Technology in Supporting Independent Living

1. In case of Sally it is seen that GPs had suggested Sally to use various technologies in order to give her support in her daily activities. Sally was firstly suggested to use various assistive technologies as she was diagnosed with MS. Sally also had the problems in driving a car from her work place to her home. To resolve this, she was suggested to use a special type of vehicle that must be a spinner knob and the accelerator should be in the left side of Sally. Although there will be a driving trainer to assist Sally in special type of car. In this case, while using the new car with the new technologies, Sally might have safety issues as she was new to the technologies. In addition, the position of the accelerator in the new car might also alter the safety issue of Sally as it was not a conventional method and Sally used to drive her car in which the accelerator was in conventional position that was in the right side. So a new position might be uncomfortable for Sally. In the clinic of occupational therapist, Sally was suggested to use cane. In this case, Sally might face difficulties as she had problems in her body balance and it was time taking process to adapt with walking with a cane. Using of newly customized keyboard may alter the perfection of Sally’s typing and it might alter the job security. In addition, newly customized keyboard might cause error in typing as she was not accustomed to this technology (Helander 2014). It would increase the chances of error in the typing of Sally.

2.Ethics refers to the feelings of an individual that allow him or her to differentiate between the wrong and right things.  In addition it can be said that, an individual maintains the ethics if he/she pursue all the criteria of laws. So, it is quite evident that in order to maintain equal treatment to each and every person, the code of ethics should be practiced well (Housingandsupport.org.uk 2015). In case of using assistive technology, the ethical considerations must be followed in a right way as there is a chance of misusing the technology. Moreover, it may happen that, while applying assistive technology, the freely movement of the individual may be altered (G3ict.org 2015). Moreover, it is also very unethical to force an individual to use the technology. Along with this, if the ethical practices are breached, then it may hamper the personal life of the patient and may enhance the problem. For example it can be said that, if a person uses assistive device for improving his/her memory, it may happen that the condition is worse than that of the previous condition due to lack of using the brain. In addition using a wrong technology may also increase the problem of the individual. The assistive technology specialist should study the situation of the patient so that he/she can give best technology solutions in order to help the person ( Cook and Polgar 2014). In addition, the caregiver should equally treat every patient so that everyone can use the assistive technology in a same way.   In health and social care unit it is recommended to provide equal access to all of the patients. Moreover, privacy should be maintained regarding patient information.

Task 2: Health and Safety Considerations and Ethical Implications in Using Technology

3. The using of various assistive technology have made the job of health care giver, social service provider comparatively easier than that of the previous time ( Anderson and Wiener 2013). There are various technology such as telecare, assistive technologies like reminder device, customized clock are very much effective in giving assistance to the people who are living independently ( Gutman 2013). Telecare acts as a helping device for the family members of the patients by notifying them that the person requires help or assistance (Greenhalgh et al. 2015). The using of speaking clock, reminder devices can also provide great support to the patient. The use of assistive technologies is very much useful not only for the caregiver or family member, but also for the patients. A reminder device can help the patient or user by notifying the time of taking medicines or may inform them other important information. In case of care workers the implementation of the modern technology has positive effect on the job of the care giver as they can easily manage their work schedule in a very quick time and the communication between them has also improved due to the use of technology. In case of care giving organization such as hospital, the use of technology helps to provide care to a large number of patients in a very short time. However, the modern technology may be too costly and the workers may have lack knowledge in using new technologies (Aloulou et al. 2013).

Dementia is a neuronal disorder in which the patient have a declining memory and alteration in his or her thinking skills. It is said that, dementia is not a particular disorder and it is associated with the above described problems. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the major reason of dementia. In this essay, it is seen that Maggie is a 62 year old lady who is suffering from the dementia that is in very initial stage. She recently lost her husband. However, she was an active lady. However, in recent time, she had no idea about the date or time due to her dementia. Often, she left her house in nights. One week ago when her daughter came to her, she found that her mother was not in the house and the water was flowing out of Maggie’s door. Sometimes, it was also found by the homecare that, even in early morning Maggie was not there in her house. As a result, Maggie can miss her medicines and she skipped her meals also. In this essay, the needs of Maggie for her present condition is discussed. In addition the usefulness of the assistive devices and appropriate assistive devices for Maggie is also highlighted.

Task 3: Case Study 2: Maggie’s Specific Needs for Support and Assistive Devices

1.It is very difficult to live alone for a dementia. Although, Maggie was suffering from very early stages dementia, it was not recommended to keep Maggie alone in such condition. As from the case study it was seen that Maggie ran out from her home in early morning and even in night. Her neighbor also confirmed that fact. So it can be said that, the primary thing that Maggie needed was a caregiver who could watch stop Maggie to do such things. In addition, the care giver may also can take care about Maggie’s medications and meals. This would restrict Maggie to do such things.  Maggie’s self-neglecting behavior might cause more harm to Maggie as she was not in a mentally good condition at all. According to the Alzheimer’s association, it would be very much effective if the family makes a plan for the missing persons such as a recent close up photos of the person so that he or she can be traced easily in case of missing. In addition, Maggie could be enrolled in an identification program. It was also seen that after the death of Maggie’s husband she became very alone and her daughter visited Maggie’s house occasionally. So it was very important to remove the feeling of loneliness from Maggie in order to give support to Maggie in such condition. Another, important thing that was very much essential for Maggie was to give her a proper safety environment. In addition Maggie should be given a person centered services so that she can be monitored all the time. Home and community-based services may be helpful to give care for dementia patients. Family meeting can give support in clarifying the areas of concern for the patients (Long et al. 2015). In Case of Maggie, it can be recommended that, her daughter should visit Maggie frequently so that the feeling of loneliness can be reduced.  In order to reduce the gap between the caregiver and doctors of Maggie, it was very much important to understand the exact needs of Maggie.

2.In case of Maggie, various technologies can be used in order to help Maggie in independent living in her current condition.   Extreme clutter or compulsive hoarding and debris in the home can help the person with dementia in managing the activities of daily life and along with this it can also help them in pursuing the self-care practices. This practices can be used in case Maggie as she had the same problems.  Wandering is a serious problems for the persons who have dementia and returning to the home of that person depends on other people who can recognize the person. The global positioning systems (GPS) technology can be used to observe and locate the people with dementia who are at risk of wandering. In such scenario, the patient can wear a device that is GPS enable and proper internet connection. As a result, the location of the dementia patients can be traced with the help of the GPS system (McKinstry and Sheikh 2013). In case of Maggie, the use of GPS technology would be very helpful for Maggie as it would give the locational information to others. In addition a mobile phone with the same features can also be used in case of Maggie. Reminder messages that are recorded in a device may be used when the caregiver is not present. In some cases the reminder devices act according to the activity of the patient. Specifically designed clock for the dementia patient can be used and this will the patients to distinguish between the times of night and day (Sauer 2014). Medication management technology can also be used and it will help Maggie very much as Maggie often forgot to take her medicines.

3.The technology is definitely required for the dementia patients like Maggie who lived independently in her house. By using various technology, the quality of daily living of Maggie will enhance and it will help the users of health and social services like Maggie. It can be said that the use GPS technology in case of dementia patients, it will be very much effective as the caregiver as well as the family member will easily find the patients if they are lost. By using of medication management technology, the dementia patient may not skip their medicines due to their lack of memory. Dementia patients cannot understand the difference between day and night. A specially designed clock for the dementia patient can help them to understand the night and day time.

So, it can be said that, the dementia patients are very much vulnerable to self-neglect, neglect, exploitation and in order to give proper support it is very important to use various technologies. Using the technologies, will help both the dementia patients and his /her family.  A proper assistive device will ease the activity of daily life of a dementia patients and in addition give a little relieve to the family members.

Sample – Student Critical Self-Reflection Tool (D1 Criteria)
Name:		Date:
UNIT:
The steps I have completed in this piece of work include:
In this assignment I completed the three tasks individually. At first read the case study 1 and then searched relevant information in order to complete the Task 1 and Task 2. After completion of those tasks, I read case study 2 and then did the same as I had done for the previous two tasks.
Something I did not understand about one or any of the assignment tasks were:
There was no such problem of understanding related to any tasks that I had completed in this assignment.
Something I am going to change/correct/add/remove in the future that I have learned from this piece of work is:
From this study, I have learnt that, technology is very much important in order to give a proper care to the patients of various diseases (MS and dementia as per the case study). In future I shall try to remove the social stigma of using technology for supporting various patients with different diseases. In addition , I will also try to enhance the knowledge of using various technologies among the health care giver.
One concept I have learned from this task is:
From this task , I have learnt about the technology of hand held  personal digital assistant (PDA) that is used to aid the memory skills of an individual.
This piece of work demonstrates that I can (list the criteria):
· I can analyze case studies · I can find information related to the case study · I can evaluate my own piece of work.
I can improve my work by:
I can improve the quality of my work by doing more research that is associated with the modern technology of assistance. It will help me to know more about this field.
After reviewing this assignment, I would now like to achieve (define revised goals):
After reviewing this assignment I would like to gain more knowledge about various technologies that can be used to assist the people who are living independently.
I would like to do this because (explanation):
The main reason of learning more new technologies is to help more number of people in a better way in spite of spending less time.
What would be the difference to the outcome (if any) if I had prepared more carefully / taken it more seriously?
Although I have complete my assignment with adequate sincerity, there may be chances of improvements in identifying various technologies.
Where can I go from here in my academic development?
I can continue for my higher studies after completion of my assignment.
Any other comments…

References

Alharbi, S. (2016). Benefits and Barriers: Incorporating Assistive Technology in an Inclusive Setting for Primary School Students with Learning Disabilities in Language Arts. American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Aloulou, H., Mokhtari, M., Tiberghien, T., Biswas, J., Phua, C., Lin, J.H.K. and Yap, P., 2013. Deployment of assistive living technology in a nursing home environment: methods and lessons learned. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 13(1), p.42.

Ampratwum, J., Offei, Y.N. and Ntoaduro, A., 2016. Barriers to the Use of Computer Assistive Technology among Students with Visual Impairment in Ghana: The Case of Akropong School for the Blind. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(29), pp.58-61.

Anderson, W.L. and Wiener, J.M., 2013. The impact of assistive technologies on formal and informal home care. The Gerontologist, 55(3), pp.422-433.

Cook, A.M. and Polgar, J.M., 2014. Assistive Technologies-E-Book: Principles and Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

G3ict.org, 2015. Assistive Technology as a Means of Supporting. Available at: https://g3ict.org/download/p/fileId_949/productId_259. [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].

Greenhalgh, T., Procter, R., Wherton, J., Sugarhood, P., Hinder, S. and Rouncefield, M., 2015. What is quality in assisted living technology? The ARCHIE framework for effective telehealth and telecare services. BMC medicine, 13(1), p.91.

Gutman, G.M. ed., 2013. Technologies for active aging (Vol. 9). New York: Springer.

Helander, M.G. ed., 2014. Handbook of human-computer interaction. Elsevier.

Hess, J.(2018). Ctdinstitute.org. Available at: https://www.ctdinstitute.org/sites/default/files/file_attachments/CTD-AT101-V4.pdf [Accessed 3 Dec. 2018].

Housingandsupport.org.uk,  2015. Overview of Assistive Technology – housingandsupport.org.uk. Available at: https://www.housingandsupport.org.uk/overviewassistivetechnology [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].

Long, E., Gould, E., Maslow, K., Lepore, M., Lawren Bercaw, M.P.P., Leopold, J., Lyda-McDonald, B., Ignaczak, M., Yuen, P. and Wiener, J.M., 2015. Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Individuals With Dementia Who Live Alone.

McKinstry, B. and Sheikh, A., 2013. The use of global positioning systems in promoting safer walking for people with dementia. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 19(5), pp.288-292.

Sauer, A. (2014). 7 Technological Innovations for those Living with Dementia.Alzheimers.net. Available at: https://www.alzheimers.net/9-22-14-technology-for-dementia/ [Accessed 4 Dec. 2018].

Weerasinghe, I.E., Fonseka, P., Dharmaratne, S., Jayatilake, J.A.M.S. and Gielen, A.C., 2015. Barriers in Using Assistive Devices among a Group of Community-dwelling Persons with Lower Limb Disabilities in Sri Lanka. Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development, 26(1), pp.79-96.