Ethical Use of Web-based Welfare Technology for Caring Elderly People Who Live Alone in Korea: A Case Study

Authors

  • Soyun Choi Dept. of Social Welfare, Namseoul University, South Korea
  • Kyungsook Kim Dept. of Nursing, Namseoul University, South Korea
  • Chayapol Kamyod Computer and Communication Engineering for Capacity Building Research Center, School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand
  • Cheong Ghil Kim Dept. of Computer Science, Namseoul University, South Korea

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/jwe1540-9589.21410

Keywords:

Welfare technology, Ethical indicators, IoT, AI, Elderly people who live alone, Community care.

Abstract

This study examined ethical ways to use welfare technology in a situation where the demand for non-face-to-face welfare services using Cloud based healthcare systems had increased rapidly in caring for elderly people who live alone. Through focus group interviews with social workers related to the care of elderly people who live alone, in-depth interviews were conducted on the current situation, problems, ethical issues, and development directions arising in the implementation of welfare technology. The main areas of interest were focused on improving safety in caring them using IoT technology and enhancing emotional support in preventing lonely deaths using companion robot and AI speaker. Issues such as the need for individualization, client-centeredness, privacy, self-determination, competence, informed consent, right to know, convenience, and advocacy were identified as important ethical considerations related to use of welfare technology. The research results suggested that various stakeholders should participate in the development of ethical indicators and welfare technology for the ethical use of welfare technology.

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Author Biographies

Soyun Choi, Dept. of Social Welfare, Namseoul University, South Korea

Soyun Choi, served as a social worker and chief director for 16 years at a community welfare center. She received her PhD in social welfare from Ewha Womans University in 2005. She is a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Namseoul University. She has published books including Case Management, Social Work Ethics and Philosophy, and Social Work Supervision. Her main research fields are management of social welfare organization, social work ethics and cultural competency. She is recently interested in the ethical issues of technology-linked social welfare services.

Kyungsook Kim, Dept. of Nursing, Namseoul University, South Korea

Kyungsook Kim served as a registered nurse for 7 years at Seoul National Hospital. She received the philosophy of doctorate degree in nursing science from Seoul National University in 2008. She is currently working as a faculty of adult nursing, at the Department of Nursing, Namseoul University. Her research areas include health promotion of aged adults, depression prevention intervention, and qualitative research. She has been serving as a reviewer for many highly respected journals.

Chayapol Kamyod, Computer and Communication Engineering for Capacity Building Research Center, School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai 57100, Thailand

Chayapol Kamyod received his Ph.D. in Wireless Communication from the Center of TeleInFrastruktur (CTIF) at Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. He received M. Eng. in Electrical Engineering from The City College of New York, New York, USA. In addition, he received B.Eng. in Telecommunication Engineering and M. Sci. in Laser Technology and Photonics from Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. He is currently a lecturer in Computer Engineering program at School of Information Technology, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand. His research interests are resilience and reliability of computer network and system, wireless sensor networks, embedded technology, and IoT applications.

Cheong Ghil Kim, Dept. of Computer Science, Namseoul University, South Korea

Cheong Ghil Kim received the B.S. in Computer Science from University of Redlands, CA, U.S.A. in 1987. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Yonsei University, Korea, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. Currently, he is a professor at the Department of Computer Science, Namseoul University, Korea. His research areas include Multimedia Embedded Systems, Mobile AR, and 3D Contents. He is a member of IEEE.

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Published

2022-04-20

How to Cite

Choi, S. ., Kim, K. ., Kamyod, C. ., & Kim, C. G. . (2022). Ethical Use of Web-based Welfare Technology for Caring Elderly People Who Live Alone in Korea: A Case Study. Journal of Web Engineering, 21(04), 1239–1264. https://doi.org/10.13052/jwe1540-9589.21410

Issue

2022: Vol 21 Iss 4

Section

SPECIAL ISSUE ON Future Multimedia Contents and Technology on Web in the 5G Era