In the near term, maybe some kind of medication robot system that would be plugged into the pharmacy, and that would alert them when they should take their pills, and track whether they actually did take them on time. And then have automatic reordering, and transmit the compliance data back to the physician.
I think there will be a big market for easier to use technology; a lot of people seem to get frustrated with technology as they age. My parents used to be fairly tech-savvy for people of their generation, but now in their 70s, they seem just as befuddled by things like TV remotes and DVRs as all the people of the previous generation were, despite having known how to use/figure out technological stuff say… 15 years before.
I think the biggest one would be to start having something along the lines of a healthcare coach for the elderly. Someone who would be able to help them know what’s available and how to actually use those services, and how to navigate the insurance/medicare maze, as well as stuff lik end-of-life planning for wills/estates and funeral services. Like say… if you need to go to a rehab facility after being hospitalized for something, how do you pick? How long will you be there? What are the next steps? Who do you talk to? It all ends up getting muddled through, but it sure would be nice to have someone you already know help you (or your spouse) navigate all that and keep you on track through tough times like those, when someone’s in the hospital. It’s bewildering for middle-aged people, but is frequently nearly overwhelming for the elderly.
Some of that already exists. Like a medication dispensing machine. Or a voice assistant for my Comcast DVR, although I don’t use any sort of voice-activated digital assistant. And my parents are suspicious of anything listening to them (though their conversations are so boring that Siri and Alexa would probably commit suicide rather than continuing to listen).
I’m imagining something like that, only simpler for the end user. Rather than have to load all the medications into little dinky cups, this thing would be integrated with the pharmacy, so all they’d get is a sort of medication “magazine” that they’d load say… monthly. Every day, the machine would dispense the pills whenever they’re due- the magazine would have that information stored in it.
Once a month, the pharmacy would send a new loaded & programmed magazine, and the patient or caregiver would swap it out for the old one.
Another existing alternative is Pillpack, an Amazon subsidiary, that sends little sachets labeled for each day and time of day and containing the medicine to be taken at that time. So solutions exist for simplifying medication administration.
We’re recently retired and live on the third floor of a walkup. We anticipate having to move at some point when we’re older simply because of the stairs. The way the stairs are configured doesn’t lend itself to one of those ascending chairs. So there ought to be some portable contraption that can help you up the stairs, and also to carry stuff up the stairs. I googled it a while ago when my mom was aging and someone had invented something that you strap on your legs, but it never became commercially available. I’m thinking that corporations are afraid of being sued and as a result they don’t innovate in this area.
At my age (83) the thing I would like the most is an easy way of getting up and down to the subway platform. I can walk about a half km to the subway, but the platform is about 6 storeys down. Two storeys from the entrance down to the escalator for three storeys more then another down to the platform. Going up there is a second escalator to the entry.
Later on, needs will get worse, but for the time being, it is that subway. Oh, and when it snows, that half km can be an impossible barrier.
Say it with me, seniors: “Once again, I LOVE living in the Twenty-first Century!”
I’ve always said the biggest confrontation I’ll ever have with my family will be when they try to take my car keys away. Now I’m telling them “Feel free to tell me when you think I’m a danger.” Thanks to Uber/Lyft/Whatever’sNext and mass transit (and soon, self-driving cars), I’ll still be independent.
“Where’s dad?” “He grabbed the early bus downtown, probably flirting with the ladies’ bridge club at Cool Beans. Or watching the game at Sluggo’s. All I know is he booked an Uber to get him home by 6 to grill salmon for everyone.”
Some do, some don’t. The Chicago system has some accessible stops and more that are not accessible at all, or only partially accessible (escalator instead of elevator, for example). They have been retrofitting stops for accessibility when there are major renovations, but not consistently.
The NYC system is even worse because it’s so much more problematic and expensive to retrofit, say, a station 50 or 100 feet below a dense Manhattan street with very expensive real estate over it.
Well, sure. But there’s a lot of people who are in between.
My father, not rich but securely in the middle class (who now resides in a “memory care” facility) needed aides around the clock. But he couldn’t afford them. Not in New York City, where his whole family lives. But a robot at around $100K? He could have afforded that, with financing. And he could have qualified for financing, because he had (has) a rock-solid pension.
As it turned out, advancing dementia forced him into a care facility, but a round-the-clock robot aide might have gotten him another year at home.
While technology advances may buy the elderly time at home, dementia will make it impossible for some to live on their own even if they’re in great physical shape for their age, or have the best, latest technology that money can buy (and have unlimited money to buy that technology).
The advances don’t need to be technological or medical. Social can go a long ways.
Think of your typical 95 year old. They’re living alone in their apartment but can’t sufficiently take care of themselves, so their children and grandchildren pressure them into going into assisted living, where they get patted on the head and addressed by their first name by young medical professionals.
So what if, instead, they join forces, live together like college students splitting the rent on a big old farmhouse near the university? They each have a room but they eat together, make decisions for the community together, split lot of the bills, and exist as an extended family used to. When they need ancillary or fully skilled nursing care, they hire someone, and the nurse works for them. They review their nursing staff employees once a week at the business meeting.
Or maybe instead of simply hiring young medical folks, they lure some into moving in and making the extended community their home as well. They’re young, they have bills to pay and perhaps wish to start a family. It’s cheaper for them to live communally too, and there’s all these older folks happy to be babysitters. And if it’s al lifestyle that appeals to them and they want to do it permanently, they’re the next generation and the cycle continues.
A quick google indicates about 1 in 70 people in their 60’s are showing signs of dementia. About 1 in 4 in their 80’s have signs of it. But it overlaps with other stuff - plenty of people have arthritis AND dementia AND diabetes AND heart disease…
Also, it is entirely possible to have some “signs of dementia” but still be functional enough to conduct one’s own affairs, recognize family, etc. It’s not like flipping a switch, one day you’re fine and the next sitting in a corner drooling. Not all dementia is the same, either, some forms being much more aggressively progressive, some not so much, and they impair is somewhat different ways.
Likewise, all those other things - arthritis, heart disease, etc. - will impair to different degrees.
Like it or not, money is a factor. Someone who can afford to modify their home and/or hire whatever help they need is going to be far better off than someone who can’t. Finances can be as crippling as a disease.
And, in the end, if we do get caretaker robots the best strategy might be not to have the elderly buy them but rather to rent or lease them. But I still doubt they’ll happen.
That does point something else out- a lot of the users will only want it for a few years. If the lifespan of such a robot was 10 years, it could easily have 2 or 3 owners in that time, and only the first would be probably paying the $100,000. Or they could be more common to rent, so the average pensioner is paying a few thousand a month (presumably scaled by newness/bells/whistles of robot), rather than $100,000.
'Course, there’d be adverts on 'em from like week 2 and crap like robots only compatible with one coffee brand… or medication brand.
Are there actually places where it’s easy to get Uber/Lyft where it was difficult to get a cab pre-Uber/Lyft? I mean, I see a lot of advantages to Uber/Lyft but I haven’t been anywhere where independence was possible with ride apps but wasn’t possible with cabs pre-apps.
Good point. Always assumed it’d be too expensive to cab everywhere (with long lead times). I guess because I know students who Uber instead of owning a car, I assumed it’d be cheaper and faster.
Oh, it might be a bit cheaper ( or more expensive during a surge), it might be a bit faster - but I haven’t been anywhere where it’s so much cheaper and faster that it’s going to determine whether people can live independently. I mean, if you live in the sort of place where cabs basically charge you double ( because they have to travel back to town empty) either Uber/Lyft will do the same thing or there just won’t be anyone willing to drive for them in that area.
Thanks. I guess I’m unprepared to limit my mobility because I walk or bike everywhere (in my late 60s, up in the frozen tundra; Yay moi). As I slow down, I’ll have to learn about transportation issues. We’re not out in the boonies, though; there’ll be options.