Welfare Technology

Welfare technology is technology that can help and assist users in their daily lives. Examples of welfare technology are intelligent aids such as cleaning robots, sensors in clothes, smart homes, etc. The concept of a welfare technology should be seen in a new discourse created in 2007 in Denmark .

Welfare technology is closely linked to Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) but whereas AAL focuses on "addressing the needs of the aging population", welfare technology addresses not only the elderly but also other users of public services such as the handicapped, schools, day care centres, abusers, etc.

The discourse were created during a debate meeting in the Spring of 2007 hosted by the Danish Board of Technology, where new technologies in care were discussed.

The European Union has become increasingly focused on finding new ways to reduce the burden of the elderly boom that is expected in the future. One example of this is the AAL-169 program - a new European technology and innovation funding program.

The program is intended to address the needs of the aging population, to reduce innovation barriers of forthcoming promising markets, but also to lower future social security costs.

An example of a project that focuses on welfare technology is the EU-funded project called PERSONA .

Famous quotes containing the words welfare and/or technology:

    Whether in the field of health, education or welfare, I have put my emphasis on preventive rather than curative programs and tried to influence our elaborate, costly and ill- co-ordinated welfare organizations in that direction. Unfortunately the momentum of social work is still directed toward compensating the victims of our society for its injustices rather than eliminating those injustices.
    Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)

    Primitive peoples tried to annul death by portraying the human body—we do it by finding substitutes for the human body. Technology instead of mysticism!
    Max Frisch (1911–1991)