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Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19

The restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic pose significant risks to the human rights of older people from limitations in how people are able to engage with their social lives and from increased risk of discrimination linked to conceptualization of COVID-19 as a disease of the old...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: McCabe, Louise, Dawson, Alison, Douglas, Elaine, Barry, Nessa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391174/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444472
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168725
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author McCabe, Louise
Dawson, Alison
Douglas, Elaine
Barry, Nessa
author_facet McCabe, Louise
Dawson, Alison
Douglas, Elaine
Barry, Nessa
author_sort McCabe, Louise
collection PubMed
description The restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic pose significant risks to the human rights of older people from limitations in how people are able to engage with their social lives and from increased risk of discrimination linked to conceptualization of COVID-19 as a disease of the old. Further, COVID-19 increases risks of social isolation through public health and societal responses such as lockdowns. These responses have resulted in significant shifts in how citizens and service providers think about technology as a tool to allow people to stay socially connected. However, there are risks to the rights of older people inherent in the use of technology related to their ability to access technology and ageist assumptions that may limit engagement. The ‘Technology and Social Connectedness’ project was a pre-pandemic mixed-methods study involving evidence review, secondary analyses, and qualitative methods. Cross-dataset analyses led to evidence-based guidance to inform a rights-based approach to using technology. This paper provides analysis from the project that foregrounds a rights-based approach demonstrating how we developed the guidance within this framework and, contextualized within the pandemic response in Scotland, how that guidance can help others to protect and uphold the human rights of older people.
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spelling pubmed-83911742021-08-28 Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19 McCabe, Louise Dawson, Alison Douglas, Elaine Barry, Nessa Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic pose significant risks to the human rights of older people from limitations in how people are able to engage with their social lives and from increased risk of discrimination linked to conceptualization of COVID-19 as a disease of the old. Further, COVID-19 increases risks of social isolation through public health and societal responses such as lockdowns. These responses have resulted in significant shifts in how citizens and service providers think about technology as a tool to allow people to stay socially connected. However, there are risks to the rights of older people inherent in the use of technology related to their ability to access technology and ageist assumptions that may limit engagement. The ‘Technology and Social Connectedness’ project was a pre-pandemic mixed-methods study involving evidence review, secondary analyses, and qualitative methods. Cross-dataset analyses led to evidence-based guidance to inform a rights-based approach to using technology. This paper provides analysis from the project that foregrounds a rights-based approach demonstrating how we developed the guidance within this framework and, contextualized within the pandemic response in Scotland, how that guidance can help others to protect and uphold the human rights of older people. MDPI 2021-08-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8391174/ /pubmed/34444472 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168725 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
McCabe, Louise
Dawson, Alison
Douglas, Elaine
Barry, Nessa
Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title_full Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title_fullStr Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title_short Using Technology the Right Way to Support Social Connectedness for Older People in the Era of COVID-19
title_sort using technology the right way to support social connectedness for older people in the era of covid-19
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391174/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444472
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168725
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