Would You Trust Your Eldercare To A Robot?

I came across a GeckoSystems Press Release and found these quotes regarding their CareBots. It is kind of spooky to think this will become a reality. They speak of it as if it is. Thought you might like to read about it:

The consumer has needs for family care assistance with remote monitoring and notification. This is for family care for the elderly, chronically ill, and children. Since GeckoTrak™ enables the CareBot to automatically follow a designated care receiver using sensor fusion, it allows the care giver to remotely see how they are doing using the onboard wireless webcam. Should the designated family member not respond to our CareBot’s inquiries the caregivers would be contacted by GeckoChat™ forthwith by telephone.

Professional healthcare needs cost effective night time errand running, portable telemedicine, etc., enabling specialist nurses to be more efficient and productive with less work by allowing them to video conference (telepresence) doctors for more timely, "on the spot," diagnosis of patients. The CareBotPro™ can carry all the specialized supplies and equipment the IV or wound care nursing specialists might need. At night the MSR can deliver bed pans, medications, even take vital signs, etc. to those in need while the night shift nurses are busy with a crisis, or other important duties on their wing or floor.

For a non technical discussion of what a GeckoSystems' CareBot does, the short answer is that it decreases the difficulty and stress for the caregiver that needs to watch over grandma, mom, or other family members most, if not much, of the time day in and day out due to concerns about their well being, safety, and security.

Much like these useful and cost effective appliances, a CareBot helps the care giver as a new type of labor saving, time management automatic home appliance.

For example, time stress is frequently felt by the care giver when they need to go shopping for 2 or 3 hours, and are uncomfortable when they have to be away for more than an hour or so. Time stress is much worse for the caregiver with a frail elderly parent who must be reminded to take medications at certain times of the day. How can the care giver be away for 3-4 hours when Grandma must take her prescribed medication every 2 or 3 hours? If the caregiver is trapped in traffic for an hour or two beyond the 2 or 3 they expected to be gone, this “time stress” can be very difficult for the caregiver to moderate.

Not infrequently, the primary caregiver has a 24 hour, 7 days a week responsibility. After weeks and weeks of this sometimes tedious, if not onerous routine, how does the caregiver get a “day off?” To bring in an outsider is expensive (easily $75-125 per day for just 8 hours) and there is the concern that medication will be missed or the care receiver have an accident requiring immediate assistance by the caregiver, or someone they must designate. And the care receiver may be very resistant to a “stranger” coming in to her home and “running things.”

So what is it worth for a care receiver to have an automatic system to help take care of Grandma? Just 3 or 4 days a month “off” on a daylong shopping trip, a visit with friends, or just take in a movie would cost $225-500 per month. And that scenario assumes that Grandma is willing to be taken care of by a “stranger” during those needed and appropriate days off.

So perhaps an automatic care giver, a CareBot, might be pretty handy, and potentially very cost effective from the primary care giver’s perspective.

The care receiver's perception of a CareBot is much different from the care giver's. It’s a new kind of companion that always stays close to them enabling family and friends to care for them from afar. It tells them jokes, retells family anecdotes, reminds them to take medication, reminds them that family is coming over soon (or not at all), recites Bible verses, plays favorite songs and/or other music. It alerts them when unexpected visitors, or intruders are present. It notifies designated care givers when a potentially harmful event has occurred, such as a fall, fire in the home, or just not found by the CareBot for too long a time. And it responds to calls for help and notifies those that the caregiver determined should be immediately notified when any anticipated event occurs.

The family can customize the personality of the CareBot. The voice’s cadence can be fast or slow. The intonation can be breathy, or abrupt. The voice’s volume can range from very loud to very soft. The response phrases from the CareBot for recognized words and phrases can be colloquial and/or unique to the family’s own heritage. The personality can range from brassy to timid depending on how the care giver, and others appropriate, chooses it to be.

Generally, the care receiver is pleased at the prospect of family being able to drop in for a “virtual visit” using the onboard webcam and video monitor for at home “video conferencing.” The care receiver may feel much more needed and appreciated when their far flung family and friends can “look in” on them any where in the world where they can get broadband internet access and simply chat for a bit.

Why is Grandma really interested in a CareBot? She wants to stay in her home, or her family’s home, as long as she possibly can. What’s that worth? Priceless. Or, an average nursing home is $5,000 per month for an environment that is too often the beginning of a spiral downward in the care receiver’s health. That’s probably $2-3K more per month for them to be placed where they really don’t want to be. Financial payback on a CareBot? Less than a year- Emotional payback for the family to have this new automatic caregiver? Nearly instantaneous.