Convenors: Kate Hamblin (University of Sheffield) and Giovanni Lamura (INRCA-IRCCS: National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing; Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing)
This session explores some of the myriad ways time and technology in care arrangements and systems are interconnected. In many countries, technology has been part of policy approaches to promote ‘ageing in place’ and can facilitate the balance between care and paid work for those supporting others (Hassan) and as a means to negotiate spatial distance when caring networks are not co-located. This has implications for care, which technology can render instantaneous, while disrupting its more traditional aspects such as proximity and touch (Lariviere). We are also observing a shift in policy and practice over time as digital and mainstream devices are used in care arrangements, by necessity as analogue solutions become obsolete and as part of a drive for innovation, bringing new challenges for regulation, ethics, privacy and risk (Hamblin) and issues related to the ‘digital divide’ in the skills to use and access to these devices, with implications for practice (O’Loughlin et al.).
The following papers are included, with discussant Professor Andreas Hoff (Zittau-Görlitz University of Applied Sciences):
- Technology and Social Care in a Digital World: UK Policy and Practice Shifts, Kate Hamblin, University of Sheffield, UK.
- Care at a distance? Temporal and spatial dimensions of technology-mediation in care, Matthew Lariviere, University of Sheffield, UK.
- Role of healthcare professionals in supporting digital technology use for successful ageing in place, Kate O’Loughlin, Meryl Lovarini, Lindy Clemson, Ageing and Health Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Australia.
- Current challenges for the deployment of information and communication technology solutions for Informal Carers, Alhassan Yosri Ibrahim Hassan, NRCA-IRCCS, Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, Italian National Institute of Health & Science on Ageing, Ancona and Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Faculty of Economics “Giorgio Fuà”, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.