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

Louise McCabe, Alison Dawson, Elaine Douglas and Nessa Barry
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Louise McCabe: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
Alison Dawson: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
Elaine Douglas: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
Nessa Barry: Technology Enabled Care and Digital Healthcare Innovation, Scottish Government, Edinburgh EH12 9EB, UK

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: older people; technology; human rights; social connectedness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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