Friday 18 February 2011

Class One- Ethics and Technology

The focus of this post is to say what we talked about in our first Participation in Occupation 1 class, technology and ethics.
Information Technology refers to the use of all forms of technology to create, store, exchange and use information (Entrepreneur, 2011). This means that IT includes things like computers, mobile phones and anything else that can be used to make, hold, send or use information.
IT has become a thing of everyday life, it is definitely commonplace in our society
This YouTube Video shows the progression of technology, it is scary how fast technology is changing and how people had nothing to do with it 100 to 200 years ago but now it is an everyday part of our lives.
I am still figuring out how to post things on this blog, it is still rather confusing so if the clip did not show up I am sorry and will try to figure it out for the next post.
The main types of technology that I feel comfortable using are telephones, mobile phones and music devices. I am not that confident using the internet because I am one of those people who thinks that people can steal your ID over the internet and use it, not sure how, but it does kind of scare me that there could be someone out there signing up for things under my name or even using a fake passport or something. not meaning to scare everyone else out there but all those kind of things are made possible by IT.

I think that IT can be very useful for Occupational Therapist to use because it can give the OT many different ways in which to relate to clients. If they are young they might enjoy Facebook so it is important for the OT to know about Facebook so it can be a potential therapeutic tool. The client might enjoy music, so the OT might have to use music technology to relate to the client and, again, as a possible therapeutic tool. 
It is about taking the opportunities that IT gives us and using them for the benefit of the client.
There are also different programmes that can help clients with rehab or even to get back into occupations that they enjoy.
This clip shows how occupational therapist can adapt technology to suit the clients needs, to assist them in doing the occupations that they enjoy. Sorry that it is not in English.

The main thing that the OT has to watch out for when using IT devices and systems is client confidentiality. it is important that in any conversation with anyone related to the client, if it is online (e-mail) or over the phone, not to mention any personal information that may make someone be able to identify the person. 
It it also important that you have your clients consent to put anything about them online or share it with anyone in anyway.

Intellectual property refers to the number of laws and rights that there are around creativity of the mind (Wikipedia, 2011)
This means that there are many different laws relating to the ownership of ideas and creativity. This is all to ensure that people have the rights to their own creativity and their ideas stay original and can not be copied.

Social Justice can be defined in 11 different forms;  Equal Distribution, Tolerance, Equal Treatment, Criminal 
Justice, Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities, Legislative, Responsibility, Democratic, Collectivism and  Individualism (Friesen, 2011). All these things combined create a sense of social justice or stability within society.

Informed consent is the clients right to know what services they are being provided with and to know that the therapist is doing that best that can be done for them (Health Point, 2011). This means that whatever the OT does, the client must feel that it is the right thing and has the right to know exactly what is happening with his/her information that has been trusted to the OT.



References

Entrepreneur (2011). Information technology. Retrieved 19th February 2011, from              http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82268.html

Friesen, Dr M. (2011). Perceptions of social justice in new zealand. Retrieved 19th February 2011, from

Health Point (2011). Informed consent. Retrieved 19th February 2011, from http://www.healthpoint.co.nz/default,6321.sm

Wikipedia (2011). Intellectual property. Retrieved 19th February 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property



And that is the end of my first post....  I hope that i was not too boring.