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.
Highlights
Human rights, the basic rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled, include rights to equal access to services and to equal participation in economic, social, cultural, and leisure activities
During periods of pandemic-related the right toone participate in a family life is curtailed for many older people and restriction, technology is providing way to support lifethis is curtailed for Data manyfrom older technology is pandemic, providingconfirm one way support participation
It is possible to follow a common thread through the way in which state level responses to COVID-19 have shone a light on the lived experience and the quality of life of older people globally
Summary
The basic rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled, include rights to equal access to services and to equal participation in economic, social, cultural, and leisure activities. The incidence of a range of health conditions which would make individuals more vulnerable to COVID-19 increases with age, resulting in higher numbers of older people being advised, or feeling compelled, to remain in their homes during the pandemic. This presents increased risks of social isolation and loneliness, in older people who tend to have smaller social networks [3]. Reductions in the frequency of social contacts resulting from governmentmandated or self-imposed restrictions on social activities may result in increased loneliness, with concomitant negative impacts on health and wellbeing. Research conducted as the pandemic took hold suggests that in many countries loneliness in older people increased, e.g., in Scotland [4], the UK [5], the Netherlands [6], Italy [7], Japan [8], and that increased loneliness was associated with worsening wellbeing and health [4]
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