Assistive apps Write For Us – Data and numbers.
- “Assistive Technology” is a generic term designating all systems and services related to the use of assistive products and the provision of services thereon.
- Assistive products maintain or improve a person’s autonomy and ability to manage themselves, thus promoting their well-being.
- Hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication support elements, glasses, prostheses, pillboxes or reminders are many other examples of assistance products.
- Worldwide, there are more than 1 billion people who need at least one assistive product.
- Given the aging of the world population and the progression of non-communicable diseases, by 2050, there will be more than 2 billion people who will need at least one assistive product and many older people who will need 2 or more of these products.
- As of today, only one in 10 people who need an assistive product have access to it.
Assistive technology enables people to lead healthy, productive, independent, and dignified lives and participate in education, the labor market, and social life. Moreover, assistive technology reduces the need for proper health and support services, chronic care, and the workload on carers. In the absence of this technology, certain people often find themselves excluded, isolated, and plunged into poverty, which makes the consequences of illness or disability more severe for the person himself, his family, and society.
As of today, only one in 10 people who need it have access to assistive technology due to its high cost, low awareness of the issue, and a lack of stocks, trained personnel, policies on the matter, and financing.
Who can benefit from assistive technology?
The people who need it most are:
- people with a disability;
- old people;
- people with noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes or stroke;
- people with mental health disorders, including dementia and autism; and
- people affected by progressive functional deterioration.
Health, well-being, and socioeconomic benefits
Assistive technology can positively impact the health and well-being of an individual and their families and have more general socioeconomic benefits. For example:
- The appropriate use of hearing aids by young children translates into improved language skills, without which a person with hearing loss sees educational and employment opportunities substantially diminished; 1
- the use of manual wheelchairs facilitates access to education and employment while reducing healthcare costs by reducing the risk of pressure ulcers and contractures;
- assistive technology makes it possible for older people to continue living at home and delays or prevents the need for chronic care; 2
- Therapeutic shoes for diabetics reduce the incidence of foot ulcers, thus preventing lower extremity amputations and thus reducing the burden this places on healthcare systems. 3
Global unmet need for assistive technology
Throughout the world, there are large numbers of people who need assistive technology but do not have access to it. 75 million people need a wheelchair, but only 5% and 15% have one. 200 million visually impaired people lack access to vision-enhancing devices. The following examples are worth illustrating the global needs not covered in this matter:
- 466 million people have hearing loss, but the current production of hearing aids meets less than 10% of global needs.
- There is a severe shortage of workers in the field of assistive technology: more than 75% of low-income countries lack training programs in prosthetics and orthotics.
The countries with the highest prevalence of disability-related health problems tend to be those with a smaller pool of health workers trained to offer assistive technology (just 2 professionals per 10,000 population). 4
In low-income countries, one of the main reasons assistive products are not available to people who need them is that they are not affordable. 5
Difficulties
Policy Related
Very few countries have a countrywide assistive technology policy or program. In many countries, the public sector offers little or no access to this technology.
Even in high-income countries, care products are often rationed or excluded from health or social protection systems, forcing users and family members to pay large sums out of pocket.
In several European countries, for example, the government has a policy of providing only one hearing aid to the elderly, even though most people with age-related hearing loss need 2 hearing aids to function.
Product Related
Today, the assistive technology industry is narrow and specialized, serving primarily high-income markets. There is a lack of public funding and national service delivery systems, user-focused research and development activities, purchasing systems, quality and safety standards, and context-sensitive product design.
supply Related
In high-income countries, services often function in isolation or are fragmented. People have to attend numerous consultations in different locations, which is costly and burdens users, carers, and health and social service budgets.
Many low- and middle-income countries do not have a national service offering assistive products. Those who can afford it buy them directly from a pharmacy, a private clinic, or a workshop.
People from the poorest sections of society depend on donations (always random) or charitable services, which often favor the delivery of large quantities of used or inferior-quality products. These products, generally ill-adapted to the user or the context, are not accompanied by repair or follow-up mechanisms. This type of situation also occurs in emergency response programs.
Staff Related
Health personnel must be trained to prescribe assistive products, adapt them, instruct the user in their use, and follow up. When these primary conditions are unmet, assistive products are typically rendered inoperative or abandoned by the user and may even cause bodily harm (as occurs when wheelchairs without pressure-relieving cushions are delivered to people with a spinal cord injury).
Assistive technology within universal health coverage
The 2030 Agenda for Bearable Development places good health and well-being at the center of a new vision for development and emphasizes universal health coverage to ensure sustainable development for all so that anyone, anywhere, can access the health services they need without facing financial hardship.
Universal health coverage can only advance inclusively if people can access care products when and where they need them.
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, provide universal health coverage, and implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by 177 countries, unmet needs for assistive products must be addressed.
“Leaving no one behind” means ensuring that people with disabilities, the elderly population, and those affected by chronic diseases are included in society and are allowed to live healthy and dignified lives.
WHO response
WHO coordinates the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technologies (GATE) initiative, which aims to improve access to good-quality, affordable assistive technology for everyone, everywhere. The GATE initiative is developing four practical tools to help countries overcome these difficulties.
For WHO, the GATE initiative constitutes concrete progress towards meeting the objectives set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Sustainable Development Goals, and achieving universal health coverage.
The GATE initiative will reinforce WHO’s global plan for people-centered and integrated health services throughout the life course, as well as its action plans on noncommunicable diseases, aging and health, disability, and mental health.
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