When ElliQ isn’t asleep, the petite AI companion is busy keeping senior citizens in home care independent and healthy. The question that lingers in our minds is that in a corporate world where a speech cannot meaningfully end without mentioning AI strategy, why can’t AI use in elderly care ensure safety from abuse and neglect? In 2023, Jenny (not her real name) was admitted to Caring Acres due to Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and impaired cognitive skills. July 17, 2023, marked a turning point when a nurse aide walked into her room for routine checks and found a man with a mid-thrust on top of her. After undergoing checks for vaginal bleeding, Jenny told the authorities that she didn’t mind the occurrence. After all, why would she mind when this is the fate of all senior citizens who worked so hard in life only to end up in-home care and die painfully out of neglect and abuse?
Why Need AI in Elderly Care?
Care homes can be hell in the making for residents. Several cases of abuse by aides are a painful reminder of a deeply rooted problem that only technology can solve. Before we answer why we need AI use in elderly care to ensure safety from abuse, let’s step back and look at two horrible cases of home care neglect and abuse.
Ron Carter Assaulted to Death
The 82-year-old Ron spent the last six months of his life at the Gables care home in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. Having been diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. Max Carter (Ron’s daughter) had suspicions about what was taking place in his room bought a wall clock with a hidden camera to ensure Dad’s protection. In a horrifying ordeal, the camera captured a care worker hitting Mr Ron two days before his death and in distress, he yells in pain “I don’t like it here!” In another incident, two nurse aids are captured eating Mr. Ron’s food while he watches in hunger and pain. Nothing can be so inhuman!
After a few days of torture in the hands of Caregivers, Ron finally gave up his ghost at Whittlesey care home. His daughter Max later said, “I think, to me in my eyes, Dad had been through so much abuse in that care home, he let himself go.”
32 Fatal Falls in 11 Months
Mrs Gobin visited her mother, Winfred Tubb at St Luke in Runcorn, Chesire and found a surprise of her lifetime. Mrs Tubb was full of bruises, a broken hip, and lying on the ground with the alarm off. In the words of Mrs Gobin, “It would have taken her two or three hours to get into that position because she wasn’t mobile.” Despite paying 1000 euros every week for care, her mum had experienced 32 falls in 11 months! In her final days before Covid claimed her life, she summoned all her energy to say “[I’m in] terrible pain.” Well, there is not enough space to explain the suffering, neglect, and abuse that senior residents face in some of the care home facilities which raises the question of why not employ AI use in elderly care to ensure safety?
How AI Use in Elderly Care Service Adds Value
We just mentioned how ElliQ, an AI digital assistant is designed to take care of the seniors in an elderly Care home. Binarik’s report puts the projected AI healthcare market value at $173.55 billion by 2029. This is reflective of an exponential market growth at 10 times what the market value was 2 years ago.
The increased focus on home care services owing to the ageing population necessitates reliance on AI-powered healthcare assistants to ensure safety from abuse and neglect that is growing in elderly care homes.
The use cases of AI in elderly care are already promising in-home care services. While the AI use is initially focused on charting which consumes 70% of aide nurses, there are hopes that the breakthrough will address cases of neglect and abuse witnessed in senior care services.
According to Joel Dolisy, WellSky’s CTO, the progress in IA use in elderly Care is great “How many accountants are not using spreadsheets nowadays? Probably zero. I think that’s the journey we’re going to be on. We are paving the road at the same time that we’re to understand what the heart of the possible is. And it’s very encouraging.”
In sum…
Just an educated guess, if nurse aides work with AI robots, there will be an increased sense of responsibility for how they handle the residents. Perhaps, no one would be found on top of Jenny or let’s say Ron would have lived additional years. You may also ask about Mrs Gobin, she needed not to die such a painful death with blisters all over her body! Someday you’ll get old if life doesn’t happen for you to go to the grave early. When such times come, you’d love to know that AI use in elderly care ensures safety from abuse and neglect!
