Caregiving is an essential requirement of many elderly, due
to the health related challenges faced by them in old age. In most of the
cases, the caregivers are the immediate family members of the elderly. In the
fast few years, due to increase in population ageing, cost of living and
migration of younger generation to big cities and other countries, a shortage
of caregivers is being observed in many parts of the world.
To tackle the issue of shortage of caregivers especially in senior
citizens’ home, Japan is developing some robots to help the elderly in their
daily tasks such as moving between rooms in care centers, assisting with their
toilet needs and tracking those prone to wandering off. The Japanese government
has allocated ¥2.39 billion for the 2013 budget to assist the development of
such robots and it aims to achieve a situation where every senior citizens’
home, or one in every three or four facilities, will have at least one such
robot. The government will also set safety standards for nursing care robots to
give manufacturers a clear idea of the levels their products will be required
to achieve. Further details about this is available on: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/19/national/robot-niche-expands-in-senior-care/#.UcKIAOdgeGM
Although it is an innovative and useful solution from Japanese
government to cope with the shortage of caregivers in their country, however, the
robots can never replace the human warmth, care and love, which are required for
a better quality of life among elderly, especially among those who are ill and
are residing in old age homes. In addition to this, use of robots may raise
some moral and ethical issues related to well-being of elderly in some other
cultures and may also dissuade some economically well young people, from taking
care of their elderly family members by gifting them one such robot for their
care. At a broader level, like any other technology, there is always a chance
of it being misused.
Point to discuss: In your view what are the pros and cons of
using robots as caregivers?
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