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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The ethical evaluation of assistive technology for practitioners
— a checklist arising from a participatory study with people with dementia, family and professionals | | Author(s) | Beatrice Godwin |
| Journal title | Journal of Assistive Technologies, vol 6, no 2, 2012 |
| Pages | pp 123-135 |
| Source | http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/jo... |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Family care ; Assistive technology ; Person-centred care ; Social ethics ; Participation ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | Ethical concerns have been identified as a barrier to the uptake of assistive technology (AT) among social care professionals and informal carers. The aim of this study was to examine whether AT contributes to person-centred care, whether users can participate in research, and to explore ethical dilemmas with users, family and professional carers. The first stage of the project involved identifying, obtaining and, where necessary, commissioning specific items of AT tailored for use with or by particular individuals with dementia. The second stage of the project evaluated the equipment, establishing the views on and the ethical decision making by the people with dementia, their family and professional carers. Nine triads (comprising nine people with dementia, nine family members, and nine professional carers) underwent semi-structured interviews to provide three different perspectives on their experience with the same technology. The research suggests that the complexity of AT in dementia care necessitates individualised person-centred ethical evaluation and assessment. Users displayed insight, logic and empathy in ethical evaluation. They disliked remote monitoring and surveillance, whereas carers were pragmatic, prioritising safety. The findings demonstrate a significant potential role for AT in dementia care. A checklist is provided to help professionals evaluate ethical dilemmas. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-121026028 A |
| Classmark | EA: P6:SJ: M: PAA: TQ: TMB: 4C |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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