We are getting older and families are getting dispersed geographically. This means older people are isolated at a time when they have increasing physical needs. (Note that the linked BBC article does not agree with what I write below.)
These older people really, really want to remain independent. They understand that long term care is a deathwatch and that some of the watchers are incompetent--or worse, impatient about their patients' progress towards death. They need a compromise that leaves them in their homes but gives them access to assistance.
Currently in England, the state offers home care visits. These are contracted out to what are essentially temp agencies that give low-paid workers a list of homes to visit and a sheet of the minimum activities they are required to perform. The results are predictable.
What remote care can offer is on-call access to better qualified care, automated monitoring of essential functions and activities, etc. It could actually offer more.
Remote care could include features that allow recipients to band together, performing some of the monitoring functions and permitting communications with like-minded souls. Sort of like a Blog Community.
I've been working on an invention that would put remote care on a platform, and the people I have been talking to as potential customers, while a very diverse lot, have one thing in common. They all believe that some level of independence and control is essential to maintaining sufficient dignity to render continued living worthwhile.
I'm not the only one thinking about this. See also here.
Remote care can provide this, as well as additional features such as remote learning (the best of the seniors get to be really senior by continuing to learn) and remote work (seniors usually need a few extra quid and the millions of CCTV cameras monitoring our activity in Britain need someone to watch them--just as one example of productive work they could do).
Conclusion
The adoption of laissez faire capitalist governance schemes (which I broadly support) has resulted in increased mobility of labour, which has driven families apart. This has affected work, education and care for the elderly. Technology exists to mitigate some of the unwanted effects. This technology will be adopted more quickly if it is presented as a package, not individual components that target consumers with the fattest purse. Technology suppliers have not yet realised this. The online community can and should help raise their levels of awareness.
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