Assistive technologies for people with dementia: ethical considerations

Abstract

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 include a new target for global health: SDG 3 aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” Dementia care of good quality is particularly important given the projected increase in the number of people living with the condition. A range of assistive technologies have been proposed to support dementia care. However, the World Health Organization estimated in 2017 that only one in 10 of the 1 billion or more people globally who could benefit from these technologies in some way actually has access to them. For people living with dementia, there has been little analysis of whether assistive technologies will support their human rights in ways that are consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The aim of this paper is to examine the relevant provisions of the convention and consider their implications for the use of assistive technologies in dementia care. Assistive technologies can clearly play an important role in supporting social engagement, decision-making and advance planning by people living with dementia. However, concerns exist that some of these technologies also have the potential to restrict freedom of movement and intrude into privacy. In conclusion, an analysis of the implications of assistive technologies for human rights laws is needed to ensure that technologies are used in ways that support human rights and help meet the health-related SDG 3.

Exploring assistive technology as a potential beneficial intervention tool for people with Alzheimer’s disease – a systematic review

“…Therefore, patients with AD as well as their caregivers should be involved in the decision making and their consent should be sought. 42 In addition, Bennett et al 43 suggest establishing an approach that would evaluate innovative technologies with respect to human rights set in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.…”

Brain health INnovation Diplomacy: a model binding diverse disciplines to manage the promise and perils of technological innovation

“…Although the goals of these technologies have been positive, such as aiming to delay entry into institutionalized care and reduce caregiver burden, the ethical implications of such technologies are only beginning to be studied. Little consideration has been given to how these technologies should be regulated in order to be compliant with human rights obligations or how they should be incorporated into advance care planning while an individual may still have decision-making capacity (Bennett et al, 2017). Although many assistive technologies were developed as a response to the traditionally restrictive means of dementia care (i.e.…”

“…Although many assistive technologies were developed as a response to the traditionally restrictive means of dementia care (i.e. restraints, medication), these technologies may provide new and unprecedented levels of surveillance, privacy limitation, and movement restriction (Bennett et al, 2017). Even the use of care or companion robots has ethical considerations beyond the obvious benefits of caregiver unburdening, some have argued these robots may eventually devalue care and reduce person-to-person contact with older adults, which would restrict rather than enhance social interaction (Elder, 2015).…”

11 Reconfigurations of autonomy in digital health and the ethics of (socially) assistive technologies

“…Socially assistive technologies are projected as a part of addressing the growing need for care and especially elderly care in many regions, which results from the increasingly older population with similarly increasing numbers of dementia patients and other vulnerabilities and disabilities (Bennett et al 2017;Matarić 2017;Abdi et al 2018). Technological assistance is also expected to help realize supported rather than substitute decision-making for people with disabilities following the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Bennett et al 2017). "Assistive technologies" (including social or intelligent social assistive technologies) refers to devices or systems which allow to increase, maintain or improve capabilities of individuals with cognitive, physical or communication disabilities, and include devices such as GPS trackers, monitoring devices, sensors and wearables or technology for smart homes.…”