Technology Applied: Helping the Helpers of the Aging

It is so easy to find services that employ people to assist the elderly with heir daily routines, but why is it so difficult to find updated electronic and mechanical devices to assist with daily routines? There seems to be a gap in product offerings: Either there are services-only options that are a wasteful use of human interaction, or the offers are for a whole lot of unnecessary and overpriced stuff. The only products that try to integrate service and technology are working with very outdated technology (such as emergency response systems that require the user to press an alert button, which is not often doable by the person in need).

 

I attended a UX conference last week and spoke with a few sponsors about mechanical and electronic devices that may help the elderly stay in their homes longer, before having to incur the cost of assisted living. They seemed genuinely interested, and pointed me to community building or automated home systems.

While Co-housing or Intentional Community building is a very effective (and old within the human social system) way of ensuring the care of all members of a population, it can take generations to re-build in the United States. In a society like the US, we are not accustom to having our privacy invaded, and our care so directly dependent on other people. We are a society of individualists who value their independence. A collectivist model like Japan’s works well in Japan, and we would do well to be influenced by the advantages they enjoy, but our individualist society may need a different approach to caring for the elderly.

As the luxury of an automated home becomes more popular, we are seeing remote controls become more sophisticated. We have gone from “clap on, clap off” to phone apps that will ensure a securely locked and surveyed home, which can be observed and altered on command. The house will be warm, and the dinner cooking by the time you drive up to the door.  These seem like great alternatives for people on the go, and who need to be in tighter command of their living environments, but not everyone can use these technologies.

What about those individuals who are losing the ability to be in command of their environment? Can caretakers really program their living for them? What kind of control does that take away from the person in need? What about the caretakers that don’t want to be constantly monitored? How about embedded bio devices that send messages to caretakers when an individual’s body or location steps out of normal parameters? Where do we draw the like of independence for older adults, while keeping them in their homes as long as possible?

What other ideas do you have? How can they become available and affordable soon enough for the Silver Tsunami that is cooming?

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