The Change Mariner

Robots Seen As Companions for Elderly

Yahoo! News:

To some scientists, robots are the answer to caring for aging societies in Japan and other nations where the young are destined to be overwhelmed by a surging elderly population.

In one of a budding series of robot-therapy sessions at Japanese hospitals and senior citizens' homes, the elderly patients suffer from severe dementia, but their faces light up when they see the dog-shaped robot, swaddled in soft clothing, waddle around the hospital floor. Some clap; others break into feeble smiles. Urged by nurses, a few cautiously reach out and touch it.
"It's cute," one female patient cries out.

Advocates see robots serving not just as helpers -- carrying out simple chores and reminding patients to take their medication - but also as companions, even if the machines can carry on only a semblance of a real dialogue.

The ideal results: huge savings in medical costs, reduced burdens on family and caretakers, and old and sick people kept in better health.

"This technology is really needed for the global community," said Russell Bodoff, executive director at the Center for Aging Services Technologies in Washington, D.C. "If you look 30 years out, we have what I would call a global crisis in front of us: that we will have many more aging people than we could ever deal with."

Posted by Bob King at April 11, 2004 08:45 AM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Area - Social - Demographics | Industry - Healthcare | Quadrant - Technological | Theme - 'Boomers Battle Aging'

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