Independence for Whom? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Onboarding a Home Health Monitoring System for Older Adult Care

Elaine Czech, Ewan Soubutts, Rachel Eardley, Aisling Ann O'Kane

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

6 Citations (Scopus)
84 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Home health monitoring systems (HHMS) are presented as a cost-effective solution that will assist with collaborative care of older adults. However, instead of care recipients feeling like collaborators, such systems often disempower them. In this paper, we examine the dissemination, onboarding, and initial use of an HHMS to see how the discourse used by developers and participants affects users' collaborative care efforts. We found that the textual information provided often contrasted with how our participants managed their care. Instead of providing participants with 'independence,' 'safety,' and 'peace of mind,' care recipients were placed in a more dependent, less proactive role, and care providers were pressured to take on more responsibilities. We position HHMS, as they are currently marketed and onboarded, as normalizing pseudo-institutionalization. As an alternative we advocate that the discourse and design of such systems should reflect and re-enforce the varied roles care recipients take in managing their care.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2023
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781450394215
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Apr 2023
Event2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023 - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: 23 Apr 202328 Apr 2023

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
ISSN (Print)2159-6468

Conference

Conference2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period23/04/2328/04/23

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Ian Craddock and Rachael Gooberman-Hill for their guidance. We would also like to thank SPHERE and ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures (EP/K031910/1 and EP/R005273/1) and EPSRC DTP (EP/T617872/1) for helping fund this research. Finally, we would like to thank Ollie Hanton for his assistance.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 ACM.

Research Groups and Themes

  • ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
  • Bristol Interaction Group

Keywords

  • accessibility
  • critical discourse analysis
  • older adults
  • onboarding

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Independence for Whom? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Onboarding a Home Health Monitoring System for Older Adult Care'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this