Robotic aged care still on the cards

New Zealand nursing homes are considering using robots to perform routine tasks such as dispensing pills, serving meals and helping residents seek assistance as the ongoing aged care workforce crisis comes to a head.

In a study of attitudes to “assistive technologies” among nursing home staff and residents, New Zealand primary care researchers found that robots would be welcomed if they could perform tasks that would result in allowing staff to spend more time with residents.

It is not the first study to explore the use of robots in residential community living. In 2009, a team of Melbourne researchers hoped to have ‘emotionally intelligent’ robots ready to provide assistance in hospitals and aged care within five years.

Dr Rajiv Khosla and his team from La Trobe University were granted $1 million in funding to develop robots that could detect and respond appropriately to human emotions.

Dr Khosla, who said society has been changing in recent decades, claimed the field of information and communication technology has not kept up.

“Computers and robotic technology are now an integral part of life so we want to humanise them and incorporate human qualities into them. We want them to be able to interact with older people in an emotionally intelligent manner,” he said.

The recent New Zealand study, published in the Australian Journal of Ageing, investigated the attitudes and preferences of staff, residents and their relatives in a New Zealand retirement village.

Focus groups were conducted with residents, managers and caregivers, and questionnaires were collected from 32 residents, 30 staff and 27 relatives of residents.

The most popular robot tasks reported were the detection of falls, calling for help, lifting, and monitoring location. The study also found robot functionality was more important than appearance.

The benefits of robotic help in retirement villages and aged care facilities included the staff’s ability to spend more quality time with residents.

However, concerns have been raised suggesting the “health-care robot” could bring about the loss of jobs and diminish the ‘person-care’ approach often instilled in retirement villages and aged care facilities.

Do you agree that the use of robots could threaten the quality of care in aged care facilities or do you believe it is an initiative worth exploring in Australia? Share your thoughts on this topic by commenting in the box below.