Andrew Eccles, lecture in the School of Social Work & Social Policy and University of Strathclyde, used his presentation to take a step away from the rush to implement technology-enabled care solutions and consider the ethical implications of using assistive technology in a care environment.
Starting with the false dichotomy of ‘warm care & cold technology’, Andrew noted the divergence in opinions on technology in care and the current failure to consider the nuanced ethical issues – such as the unintended consequences of using tech – being raised.
The need for a considered debate on these ethical issues is further reinforced by the top-down implementation of technology-enabled care in the United Kingdom, despite there being a paucity of evidence that this policy actually works.
What Andrew's full presentation below
- Effect of telehealth on quality of life and psychological outcomes over 12 months (2012)
- A concordat between the Department of Health and the telehealth and telecare industry (2012)
- Telecare, remote monitoring and care (2012)
- Ethical considerations around the implementation of telecare technologies (2010)
- Ethical issues in the implementation of telecare policy (2010)
- The organising vision for telehealth and telecare: discourse analysis (2012)
- What matters to older people with assisted living needs? A phenomenological analysis of the use and non-use of telehealth and telecare (2013)
- Ageing with telecare: Care of coercion in austerity? (2012)
- Ageing, technology and the home: A critical project (2009)