Abstract:

In recent years, as a result of demographic changes related to the aging population, there have been changes in the paradigm of social policy, giving priority to services that provide care and support for the elderly. A major transformation in the provision of quality and innovative services to support and facilitate the daily lives of families who have a dependent adult family member is related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Innovation provides new opportunities to organize society around active aging and independent living of older people by developing appropriate equipment, electronic applications and websites for older people, their relatives or carers, personalized to the user profile. As part of the provision of formal and informal care, ICTs can provide great support to consumers, carers and service providers by improving their efficiency and enabling monitoring. The need to create appropriate mechanisms to provide more prospects for professional development of employees in these activities, consumers and their relatives - access to training, certification of acquired skills and promoting the use of ICT.

This report presents the applied aspects of modern technologies in the long-term care sector, which will improve the quality of services provided to consumers and provide an intelligent, competitive and sustainable working environment for employees. In this context, the lack of competences in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the need to improve the technological knowledge and digital skills of those working in the long-term care sector and consumers are considered. This is one of the most important challenges for the training systems of workers in the sector in Bulgaria.

Keywords:

Educational technologies, information and communication technologies, formal and informal care, long-term care training.