most difficulty with the technologies were those
over the age of seventy-five. However, confidence
levels were roughly equivalent between the three age
groups which shows potential for training.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has introduced a new programme of
research that seeks to explore the use of assistive
technologies (in particular telecare) in evaluating the
psychosocial aspects of wellbeing. Barlow et al
(2003) discuss that Telecare has been split into two
areas – information provision and risk management.
This split may be historical in nature, based on the
evolution of Telecare systems from community
alarm systems (Doughty & Williams, 2004), or it
may be based on such systems originating from
common requirements agreed between stakeholders
from the health and care providers fields (Lines &
Hone, 2004). Whatever the reason the result is that
systems appear, at least to the end user, to be clinical
in nature (Blythe, Monk, & Doughty, 2005). It is
argued that it is time that the two facets of Telecare
systems come together to form an EEAT system.
The benefit of this type of system is that it may
make Telecare systems more acceptable to older
adults by being more attractive to older adults. This
attribute could be stimulated by enhanced usability
(this resonates with the definition of social
dependability posited by (Blythe et al., 2005),
(Dewsbury, Sommerville, Clarke, & Rouncefield,
2003). The specific aspirations of the client group
will be assessed in stage 3 of the research plan.
Further research will then be directed towards
relating these ‘future requirements’ to the
capabilities of the technologies currently available.
The contribution of this research to the field is in
identifying a potential new application of electronic
assistive technology.
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