GPS Tracking for people with Dementia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2013/may/09/debate-gps-tracking-dementia?INTCMP=SRCH

Debate about GPS for people with dementia needs to be based on fact

The National Pensioners Convention has done itself no favours in associating the tracking devices with Asbo

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Melanie Henwood

Guardian Professional, Thursday 9 May 2013 08.30 BST

 

New technology can support independence. Photograph: Christopher Thomond

News that Sussex police has become the first force in Britain to pay for GPS tracking devices for people with dementia is sure to start an intense debate. The idea is simple enough (and the model is in use in several local authorities as part of their care and support): a person withdementia is given a tracking device to wear that enables them to be located easily if they wander, get lost or become disoriented.

Arguably, it is the next stage on from the familiar pendant-style alarms worn by many people in their homes. However, the implications of using such devices can cause controversy and invoke the threat of “Big Brother” or worse.

Discussion of the Sussex example on the Today programme illustrated the intensity of emotions and unwillingness to consider any potential application with Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, dismissing any use of the devices. Her view was that the scheme was tantamount to imposing an Asbo on people with dementia, and was “inhumane”, “barbaric” and flouted their human rights.

There are risks in using new technologies to substitute for care, but they can be important tools as part of a package of care and support. What is vital is that debate should be informed by the facts and not by knee-jerk alarmism and prejudice.

The scheme being piloted in Chichester (so far with just six people) appears to be achieving positive results. It is enabling people with dementia to maintain some independence in their daily lives, while providing safeguards and reassurance for family members and carers that they can be found if they wander off, without it becoming a major police operation or necessitating emergency response (families can log in from any PC and track the location of a GPS).

Brenda Jackson, manager of Chichester Careline, which is monitoring the scheme, described it as “the exact opposite of tagging” in that it is less about control and restriction and far more about supporting independence. The National Pensioners Convention is concerned that such schemes are no more than “a sticking plaster” for major problems of under-funding of social care, and that trackers will be used as a substitute for hands-on support and contact with people. That could happen, but it does not appear to be the situation with this pilot, which is using the devices to enlarge people’s worlds rather than restrict them.

As technology expands the potential applications of tracking devices, it is important that a debate about ethics takes place and that clear principles are established. However, it would be wrong to dismiss new approaches on the basis of ill-informed facts or misunderstanding of the actual application.

The National Pensioners Convention has probably done itself no favours in making the misleading association between such tracking devices and seeing people with dementia as if they had “committed a criminal act”. This does nothing to promote discussion and simply rejects the possibility of technology having an important role to play.

We are all far more familiar with mobile technology in our everyday lives and most people now carry a mobile phone. It is not such a big step from phones to trackers, and it need not signal the beginnings of a police state or anything like it if sufficient safeguards are established from the outset. Getting the balance right between providing care while continuing to support independence and enable people to exercise choice is always going to be difficult.

How best to integrate technology into care and support will be one of the largest but most exciting challenges in the years ahead. We need to embrace the possibilities and not regard them all as crude excuses for cost-cutting or as instruments of social control.

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This just seems wrong to me! Despite the possible argued benefits, I really don’t like this idea. Surely as nurses we should be able to promote independence for our patients without having to turn to  in-humane and cold methods such as GPS tracking.  Who even thought of this? It’s worrying! As it’s the police who are paying for this, it makes me further question whether this has anything to do with care and compassion or whether it’s a way of cutting down on police time and costs that are associated with older adults with dementia who are reported missing. Unless a person has consented to having a GPS tracking device fitted whilst having capacity I wouldn’t feel comfortable using this as an intervention for people with dementia.

 

 

Dove have teamed up with the eating disorder charity B-eat to deliver self esteem programmes in schools.

By Stacey Brown.

Dove real beauty Sketches

In Dove’s new advertisement  for their beauty products they’ve employed a forensic artist (Gil Zamora) who works for the FBI. In the commercial Gil Zamora draw’s two blind sketches of seven women. The first sketch that Gil draws is created from the information that the woman who he is drawing provides (their self perception) and the second sketch from information provided by a stranger who has recently met the woman he is drawing.

Following this the woman who was drawn is then presented with the two sketches and compares the differences. The advert portrays the self perceptions of women to be more negative in comparison to how they are perceived by others.

Watch the advertisement here:

The aim of the campaign is to convince women of their real beauty.

This advert has faced much criticism, and it has been suggested that the campaign depicts a woman’s self worth to her beauty.

I however disagree with this criticism and think this campaign is excellent.  I feel that the campaign will help to promote and challenge the ‘faulty negative thinking and perceptions’ that some women have of themselves. It will help to change self awareness and beliefs, which in turn will improve women’s mental health.

By Stacey Brown.