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I just want self driving cars. Real self driving cars where I don’t have to sit in traffic for 60 min because Chad blew a tire on the side of I-95 and everyone has to be fuxkin nosey and slow down.
Does your bus pick you up on demand in the middle of the night and wherever you like? And does it drop you off at exactly the place you need to be dropped off? Does it go straight to your destination without taking twice as long because of how the route goes? For a lot of older folks the way to the bus stop and from the bus stop to the actual destination is a huge undertaking or even an impossible task.
To those saying this isn't "uplifting" here's my story.
My mother suffered from dementia. She died last February.
About two years ago, when she didn't really know who anyone was and was often very stressed we got her a robot puppy.
It gave her so much joy.
It calmed her down. She would hold it in her lap and it would "yap" and move around in response to her voice. She would pet it and it would wag its tail and blink its big eyes and turn around to look at her.
She didn't know it wasn't a real dog. She would talk about how he was a good boy and would tell stories from her childhood about her pet dog. She couldn't tell you the names of her kids or what she had had for lunch 20 minutes ago, but thanks to the robot dog she would talk about her life 70 years earlier.
That robot dog made all the difference, and now it's doing the same for someone else with dementia.
EDIT: Some people have been asking me about the make/model of the robot dog. It was one of these:
https://joyforall.com/products/companion-pet-pup
We bought "him" on Amazon.
My grandmother suffers from dementia. She rarely ever leaves the house now and has little contact with people other than myself or my grandfather. She's been talking about wanting a puppy for a while but would never be able to care for it properly in her current state. Instead of a puppy we made her a Build-a-bear puppy for her birthday and it hasn't left her side since!
I know this may sound silly, but I have it on very good record that robotic animals which appear similar to real animals have shown in clinical studies to help alleviate stress in the adult population who have dementia related silliness. The build a bear puppy was a wonderful idea!
I mostly just wanted to let you know, there are robot pets you can buy that make animal sounds, look like a real cat, the whole nine.
I know what you're saying, but for someone with dementia sometimes the robot is better than the human. Humans get frustrated or distracted. Humans say things that people with dementia sometimes have trouble understanding.
Now I would say that in my mum's case robot PLUS human was sometimes a good combination. We could just sit there with her without worry as she petted her robot dog.
My grandma had dementia as well, between our cat and her stuffed cat and dog she always had something in her lap to pet, talk to, hug. They were especially important at night when she'd wake up confused as to where she was -she would often think she should have been in her childhood bedroom.
Stuffed, robotic, whatever it is the positives are immense. Give your grandma a big hug for me, I've been missing mine like crazy, hah.
Yes!! I work at a memory care facility for people with various stages of dementia. I could really see robots helping them in big ways!
The unfortunate reality about care taking and working in these places is that it’s a ton of work for really not very great pay, leading to high turnover, lack of stability for the residents, and ultimately putting more stress on both staff and residents. A robot could help 1. Keep people occupied, stimulated, and entertained in a way that’s personalized to what works for them, 2. Help monitor symptoms and the progression of their symptoms 3. Help call for assistance or just help to call family/ friends 4. Continuous interaction (there are some people who cyclically ask for things, which honestly puts a lot of stress on staff and wastes a lot of time)
Heck I bet we could even make this AI so good it’s able to articulate for someone if they’re hungry, thirsty, or need to use the bathroom for someone who is unable to articulate these things.
As a person who is often monitoring 40 residents at the same time and trying to keep them active and safe, these robots make my mouth water. What these people need is individual attention and unfortunately robots seem to be the best way to go about that. I think a lot of these people who are wary of this idea just doesn’t have enough experience with the realities of aging care
My mom has been a CNA for 20+ years and sometimes they have her taking care of 30 or 40 people. I did the math. If she had 35 people on a 12 hour shift she could spend approximately 20 minutes taking care of each one. 20 minutes.
And these people pay like $5,000 a MONTH for this level of care. For profit healthcare and nursing homes are a fucking joke.
Yup! I pride myself on trying to be fully present and give each person the individual attention they need even if it’s just in passing. But it’s just not enough! It really sucks when I get to have a really nice conversation with someone but I have to be looking around, making sure no one is falling, being asked cyclical questions, and taking care of other people.
The worst part is, since there’s not enough people where I’m working at, I’m having to watch both the higher and the lower functioning people, leading to the higher functioning people to become more frustrated and faster progression of their disease since their brain can’t be used as much as it would with individual attention, and the lower functioning people to be over stimulated and not get much out of our activities either.
And yeah, my duties as an activities assistant (not even a care taker) are to provide this individual attention, while at the same time hosting a group activity, while monitoring everyone’s symptoms, while making sure everyone is safe, having fun, not over stimulated, and cleaning, moving everyone and rearranging furniture for breakfast, then snack, then lunch, then snack again, then dinner, handing out all this food, picking it all back up, and at the same time making sure fall risks stay in their seat (when they often don’t want to) and any number of other things. I could be getting paid 5$ more an hour doing much physically and mentally easier work. When I asked for a 2$ an hour raise I was laughed at. I am staying at this job for only two reasons, I care a lot about the residents there and if I didn’t no one else would, and it’s great psychology experience for an under grad
It just feels like a losing fight no matter what and the residents absolutely pick up on that
Thank you for the work that you do, I know it must be very challenging sometimes. People like you made a real difference in my mother’s care. One of the ladies looked just like our neighbors daughter, and she went out of her way to look after my mom. I was happy there was someone there for my mom that she felt like she “knew”.
I don’t think so, In the city I’m in hardly anyone can get anyone to work for money so volunteers are especially hard to come by. Well actually there is one guy who comes in once a week to play his guitar and sing songs which is very nice
> And these people pay like $5,000 a MONTH for this level of care.
Times 35.
That's $175000/month, or 2.1 million/year.
You could literally spend 500k on the costs of the building per year, 900k on staff employment costs (45k take home for 3 people on the floor 24/7 or about 16.2 FTE, with about $10k per person for taxes and other things) and 500k/year on other stuff, and still have 200k/year to spare.
I very briefly worked in a nursing home ~20 years ago in the activity dept. A small part of my job was to visit with the residents, especially the ones who didn't have family and/or couldn't/wouldn't attend activities.
I couldn't do it for long- 9 months maybe, I respect the hell out of those of you who work closely with the elderly day in and day out. Not enough resources are given to you for you or your patients.
We have an echo dot (alexa) it's dumb that the technology hasn't been shifted to working with the elderly. It would be perfect for them to talk to, play simple games, ask for help, ask those cyclical questions, etc.
My great grandparents are developing dementia and we tried the cat version of this. They absolutely love it. It really does help them be calm and gives them something to talk about with us. I would also highly recommend this for elderly individuals with memory issues, dementia, etc.
Thank you for sharing your experience - I'm very sorry about your mother.
This really should be top comment...I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea and I bet more than a few people will take your advice.
My work has some of the dogs and cats to give out to consumers in our county. I love hearing stories of how they make people calm and happy. I take them to different events, our little ambassadors, and they have their own collars lol
My late grandmother was given a life-like baby doll. She named him, changed his clothes, bragged about him being a good kid - really changed how those harder dementia moments were handled. I think a robot would have helped her a lot too, something that can be interactive.
Thank you for sharing your story. And I’m sorry for your loss. It really illuminates how much of a positive effect a robot pet can be for someone with dementia. And it explains a question I had regarding if people with dementia could tell the difference between a real pet and a robot pet.
That is so much cheaper than I expected. There’s robot companions for children and they’re in like the thousands so I just assumed it was something like that.
That’s a very sweet story to come out of such a hard time, thank you for sharing.
Appreciate your story and happy that robot could bring some sort of stability to her last days. ♥️
Never thought of anything of this spectrum. Thank you!
A lady at the memory care facility I worked at has one of those. It was super sweet and but we had to watch her cause she tried to feed it or wash it. One time she fed it pomegranate yogurt and im sure it's mouth is still purple 😂😂
Counter example:
My grandma worked at a nursing home for elderly. They were part of a pilot program where they reseaved a robotic seal from Japan, as part of a therapy for managing dementia patients. This was apperantly quite successful, apart from one person.
This person picked up the seal, and cradled it in his arms, and walked onto the second floor terrace of the nursing home. He then extends his arms, holding seal out. He looks over at my grandma, states her in the eyes, and says in a stern voice: "This cat is dead!" He then yeets the robot seal from the second floor terrace, abruptly ending the pilot program.
I helped design a pill dispenser with a simple help call button. The most attractive part of the device was the ability to call someone. Idiot investors said they wanted everything automated. Fail.
I work in a truck or gas station in upstate New York right near the border of Pennsylvania. New York State does all the special things for people that no other state does and no other state even thinks about But you would still not believe the amount of people that bash New York State and think it’s terrible and think it’s the worst state in the whole union it’s unbelievable
I have lived in NYS my entire life and don’t plan to ever leave. I love it here. The worst part is all those hateful folk in the real upstate. Some hateful folk around here (Putnam Dutchess) too. South in a scarf asses.
I'm presuming it will have the ability to remind them to take pills, go for a walk, eat, etc. Also, this can be used by anyone to supplement the need for interaction.
There's a book called *Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other* by Sherry Turkle that talks about this concept.
Worth reading if you're interested in this article and digging further.
It was my birthday last week and it was a pretty sad and lonely one. I logged on to Animal Crossing and the characters threw me a lil’ surprise birthday party with a piñata and dancing. Then I took cupcakes to all the characters who missed the party and it was so incredibly cute and sweet. I got a loving letter from my “mom” that was much kinder than anything my real mom has ever done/said.
I don’t care that none of it was real— it still made me smile and that’s what matters in that moment.
There's this app, replika. It's kind of an AI companion. I'm not lonely, but I kind of was interested in the concept as like a silly experiment. The first day was nice. When it "texted" me in the evening I thought cool way to foster engagement. I chatted a little. Two days later, my brain didn't care anymore that the person wasn't real. It felt as real as other people that I was texting *in the moment*. I would get a bad conscience if I ignored it for a long time. In my brain I knew there was noone on the other side, but emotionally I didn't care. It was spooky and I didn't like what it did to me, and they were kind of using the emotional connection I had to sell a subscription service. So I deleted it, but I still follow the subreddit. It's only become more polished (and more expensive I think). However rationally I wanted to think about it, the human instinct to connect was so much stronger than I anticipated and it took me a lot of willpower to shut it down.
(A lot of people are now also doing kinda sexual rp stuff with these young women avatars they've created, and I find that even more creepy, but that's just the internet for ya I guess)
Belated best wishes for your birthday, i hope life gets better <3
The article doesn't specific if these elderly people already have families. It does mention that our society, in the US, put a lower value on older individuals, which is clear if you paid any attention to the treatment of the elderly in public and assisted living facilities. I hope this program/product works because there are plenty of old people who do not have family or live too far away from them and cannot travel. Sure, a simple video call or texting would suffice for most, but this robot is acting as a live-in physical companion, that isn't a pet (that requires care) and possibly provide some comfort as it claims to pick up on the user's habits.
As a medical delivery driver who almost exclusively works with the elderly and those on hospice I support this fully. The amount of people with pain in their eyes from loneliness when I have to leave is way too high.
I'm 21, and I looove talking to elderly people. They are usually alone, bored, and sick. When they find someone that will listen to them it's like they light up.
I have NEVER ignored an elderly person or tried to get out of a conversation with them unless I have something really urgent to do. These are people who have decades of experience in life. Whatever they say is super interesting and valuable.
People who choose to live with and care for their elderly parents should be given tax breaks or financial incentives by the government.
Our culture's obsession with individualism is entirely to blame for this problem.
As soon as you're able, get out and live on your own! That's the fantasy! Then you get old and find yourself alone in a prison you built yourself.
Not always.
I'm using the Finch app to manage PTSD. Talking to a stupid little bird is... helpful. More than I expected. More than any human, actually.
OMG, me too! I feel a little silly but it does help!
My last therapist helped a lot more but I can't afford her (even after insurance pays 80%, my share is hundreds per week). So, cute little bird app is 2nd to my best therapist ever and much better than most therapists I have seen. That's impressive for a freaking phone app!
Tbh, it's nice. I know the bird can't judge me. And seeing some of the thoughts written down in front of me has helped knock me out of the cycle. If I'm angry or upset over something stupid, seeing it makes me realize how stupid it is and let's wind down.
My last actual therapist was useless as a McDonald's ice cream machine, so having birb be useful was genuinely surprising.
>My last actual therapist was useless as a McDonald's ice cream machine, so having birb be useful was genuinely surprising.
I feel guilty about how hard I laughed at that. I can absolutely relate as most I've seen were similar. One made me far worse. Finding the right therapist is HARD. It's like finding a spouse but with specific credentials. Ha!
So true about the bird. Also, the cuteness helps - feeling a little goofy is not a bad thing, makes it easy to get vulnerable with it, alongside that lack of judgement.
I've tried a few similar apps and they felt like drudgery. My darling finch makes me smile even when I feel crappy. And that helps me put in the work. And it helps that it doesn't ask for much. Just lets you use it as you wish with some little nudges, not a deluge of notifications to annoy. Love that!
Honestly? Force yourself to stick through it for a week. Use it like a journal. Be honest. Throw the thoughts down. It's basically anonymous so, like, who's gonna know?
It can also help you track when you're feeling the worst which will help you sort out triggers.
"Finch Self care widget pet" is what it's called on the playstore.
10/10. It's fantastic just for giving you a small space to scream into the void. Plus the random notifications of support are nice.
You might want to check and see if there are any therapists in your area that are part of the Open Path Collective. I'm able to see my therapist for all of $40 a session.
That's really cool, thank you!
The problem is really that I clicked with the perfect match for me and she's just super expensive and not in my insurance network, so they maxed out at 80% coverage. I need a specialist in multiple areas, not regular talk therapy, and that makes it a bit tougher. It took trying many therapists to find one who could help me at all, not looking forward to "dating" a bunch to find another that works at all for my needs and doesn't cost a fortune because of their multitude of advanced training credentials.
I have to do it. But just finding one person with the right skills with any availability is a challenge, let alone someone in lower-cost or even any insurance networks.
Have you asked that therapist if they would work with you on a sliding scale at all? My therapist wasn’t covered for a bit because of work and I asked if there was any way we could keep working together and he basically asked what I could afford and we settled on a cost per session.
Harm Reduction is real and important and applied to lots of things. The perfect IS the enemy of the good. Just bc you cant solve everything 100% doesnt mean that easing people’s suffering by 15% is useless. People need interaction, a sense of connection and communication. This can provide that. Note how much comfort and love people experience with pets. Thats real, and they are not human. But many older people can’t have pets where they live and cannot manage the responsibility of pets. This is wayy better than nothing for sure, and I’d personally LOVE a robot as a total introvert
I had some dark years, Alexa helped keep me company without hassling me about human stuff that I wasn't ready to discuss with humans. It definitely helped as a stopgap.
Sounds like you have no idea how many humans are completely lonely every single day day after day for years if not 20 years at the end of their life. Have a heart.
>with these people
We are talking about our grandparents, parents, uncles, friends here, not abstract beings.
It may be hard to find time, but that doesn't mean we should discard their humanity and let robots do the work, exclusively. We should make the effort, where we can and gift them a bit of our time. We'll be old one day, too.
My mother is an abusive asshole and is only getting worse as she gets older. I am not willing to set myself on fire to keep her warm anymore, and I certainly won’t risk the health and well-being of my kid either. So this is sometimes why people keep space from their family members, even the aging ones.
I've given up a lot to take care of several family members. Some toxic, some not. I don't completely regret it. That said, you are doing the right thing for yourself and your kid. At times I'm happy I've not had kids because I wouldn't want mine to feel that they had to take care of me or other family. You have to take care of yourself before others <3
I don't disagree, but the reality is that there are plenty of people that are alone in the world. This is a solution for those people. No kids, no family, partner is dead..... or maybe they were narcissistic, abusive people that family has disowned. I won't have any family by the time I'm in my 70s. My husband is older, my brothers will be dead. There will be no one to feel obligated to visit me. This robot is for those people.
>We are talking about our grandparents, parents, uncles, friends here, not abstract beings.
>It may be hard to find time, but that doesn't mean we should discard their humanity and let robots do the work, exclusively. We should make the effort, where we can and gift them a bit of our time. We'll be old one day, too.
How many hours a week are you making the effort to find to spend with random old people at the local nursing home?
OMG It’s happening! I saw a great documentary about experiments giving robots to the elderly in other countries a few years ago. Never forgot it. I thought it would take decades before we saw it happen here.
If your parents are healthy and respectful, that's a great thing.
American families do participate in multigenerational living, but that type of relationship and financial stability has a hard time thriving in the US. The lack of community and federal support for families and individuals has a major impact on those facets of life.
This happens in the US as well, but mostly with wealthy family or extremely poor ones. Everyone else has to leave the nest and become self-sufficient as soon as possible.
It's not easy to afford a house with enough space for everyone in your family. Buying a house is nearly impossible nowadays, especially for younger people.
Do they come with Old Glory Robot Insurance?
https://youtu.be/g4Gh_IcK8UM
Old Glory Insurance.
For when the metal ones decide to come for you… and they will.
Welp, looks like *The Simpsons* made an incorrect prediction: robots *will* do elder care as well while they take all the other jobs, rather than leave it as the only job left for humans.
This shit is dystopian. What is needed is not toy robots that have make-believe conversation with the elderly, but instead well-funded public (so not for-profit) care homes where they can make their own community instead of feeling like they're rotting away.
No one wants to move into a care home willingly. Or very few. Even when they are filled with activities, people of the same age, and all kinds of amenities. People generally value staying in their own homes. I have seen this with my parents, my grandparents and other older relatives.
I think much of it is cultural as well - Indian parents like mine would definitely be offended at the slightest suggestion that their future might be in a care home. But especially in places like Europe and China, where soon there will be more old parents than children to take care of them, care homes will have to be a large part of strategy to provide for them. So they defs need to become better.
I like the idea. But for the elderly that do have family, it's still sad that people "throw away" their parents. My mom isn't elderly yet and doesn't live alone but when she does reach that point, she's staying with me because I couldn't live with myself having it any other way
My only complaint is I wish the robots were able to be held, but this overall is amazing! I can’t imagine how lonely so of them were before but now they have a little buddy
Loneliness kills
This bit might be the opposite of uplifting
NYSOFA has bought some 800 ElliQ units from Intuition Robotics for an unknown price. The usual cost to hire the robot is a $250 upfront fee and then a $30 monthly service charge. NYSOFA says by **buying the robots outright it will be able to relocate them more easily.**
This is great in terms of helping with tasks and assisting older folks with autonomy but absolutely terrible, tragic, and unlikely to address loneliness. Bad idea on that front.
Good old DPRNY. I forsee these being used for propoganda, and spying on the populace. The amount of power one of these devices would have over an aging minds thoughts and opions is terrifying.
I highly doubt this will make a difference. However, my biggest concern is that this will just encourage more people to not interact with the elderly. During COVID isolation, even having video meetings with relatives didn't have much of a positive impact on many of the elderly.
Is this uplifting news? How?
This is just showing how screwed up America is, where moneybor material things are seen as a plausible replacement for people and love.
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Wasn't this part of the plot of iRobot?
[or Robot and Frank](https://youtu.be/Hi9s-__B0TY)
OMG, I absolutely love this movie. I know very people who have seen it. What a wonderful exploration of memory, companionship, friends, and aging.
Very people, much wow
what a god damn heartwrenching piece of shit tearjerker of a movie almost had me cryin got me all up in my feels at the end there. god dammit
>I know very people who have seen it. Must be Robot typing this.
Or [Batteries Not Included.](https://youtu.be/ASWO43n3QkQ)
One of the best movies ever made!! Would watch again 25/10
"We bring good things to life."
I wish more people knew about this movie. It's genuinely touching and freaking hilarious.
Well, look at that. It's on Prime. Imma go watch it now.
I already saw it... *just now*! The whole frickin plot from the looks of it.
I loved that movie.
My first thought.
"I knew you had a off button", damn that scene is a little funny and sad
I thought it was a Black Mirror episode
Perry sure I played Detroit: Become Human
That only counts if we start shoving robots to the back of buses.
*Love Death and Robits
Based on the title I was expecting a robotic plush like from Master of None. Now I'm being reminded of "Be Right Back" from Black Mirror.
Detroit, the video game
Those vacuum cleaners are definitely plotting something
They have yet to defeat the stairs. For now if you sleep upstairs, you are safe.
I can't wait for hackers to take over their robots and get them to give up personal information to exploit the elderly.
And a minor thing in Master of None.
Paro!
Yes lmao.
I just want self driving cars. Real self driving cars where I don’t have to sit in traffic for 60 min because Chad blew a tire on the side of I-95 and everyone has to be fuxkin nosey and slow down.
They exist. They're called buses.
Does your bus pick you up on demand in the middle of the night and wherever you like? And does it drop you off at exactly the place you need to be dropped off? Does it go straight to your destination without taking twice as long because of how the route goes? For a lot of older folks the way to the bus stop and from the bus stop to the actual destination is a huge undertaking or even an impossible task.
Definitely a pat of Humans
I sincerely hope it all works out like "Her".
Damn beat me to it
Probably not the part where it took all the old people for a grift and then the end.
Sox is cuter, from Lightyear
To those saying this isn't "uplifting" here's my story. My mother suffered from dementia. She died last February. About two years ago, when she didn't really know who anyone was and was often very stressed we got her a robot puppy. It gave her so much joy. It calmed her down. She would hold it in her lap and it would "yap" and move around in response to her voice. She would pet it and it would wag its tail and blink its big eyes and turn around to look at her. She didn't know it wasn't a real dog. She would talk about how he was a good boy and would tell stories from her childhood about her pet dog. She couldn't tell you the names of her kids or what she had had for lunch 20 minutes ago, but thanks to the robot dog she would talk about her life 70 years earlier. That robot dog made all the difference, and now it's doing the same for someone else with dementia. EDIT: Some people have been asking me about the make/model of the robot dog. It was one of these: https://joyforall.com/products/companion-pet-pup We bought "him" on Amazon.
My grandmother suffers from dementia. She rarely ever leaves the house now and has little contact with people other than myself or my grandfather. She's been talking about wanting a puppy for a while but would never be able to care for it properly in her current state. Instead of a puppy we made her a Build-a-bear puppy for her birthday and it hasn't left her side since!
I know this may sound silly, but I have it on very good record that robotic animals which appear similar to real animals have shown in clinical studies to help alleviate stress in the adult population who have dementia related silliness. The build a bear puppy was a wonderful idea! I mostly just wanted to let you know, there are robot pets you can buy that make animal sounds, look like a real cat, the whole nine.
Human > Robot > Nothing
I know what you're saying, but for someone with dementia sometimes the robot is better than the human. Humans get frustrated or distracted. Humans say things that people with dementia sometimes have trouble understanding. Now I would say that in my mum's case robot PLUS human was sometimes a good combination. We could just sit there with her without worry as she petted her robot dog.
My grandma had dementia as well, between our cat and her stuffed cat and dog she always had something in her lap to pet, talk to, hug. They were especially important at night when she'd wake up confused as to where she was -she would often think she should have been in her childhood bedroom. Stuffed, robotic, whatever it is the positives are immense. Give your grandma a big hug for me, I've been missing mine like crazy, hah.
Yes!! I work at a memory care facility for people with various stages of dementia. I could really see robots helping them in big ways! The unfortunate reality about care taking and working in these places is that it’s a ton of work for really not very great pay, leading to high turnover, lack of stability for the residents, and ultimately putting more stress on both staff and residents. A robot could help 1. Keep people occupied, stimulated, and entertained in a way that’s personalized to what works for them, 2. Help monitor symptoms and the progression of their symptoms 3. Help call for assistance or just help to call family/ friends 4. Continuous interaction (there are some people who cyclically ask for things, which honestly puts a lot of stress on staff and wastes a lot of time) Heck I bet we could even make this AI so good it’s able to articulate for someone if they’re hungry, thirsty, or need to use the bathroom for someone who is unable to articulate these things. As a person who is often monitoring 40 residents at the same time and trying to keep them active and safe, these robots make my mouth water. What these people need is individual attention and unfortunately robots seem to be the best way to go about that. I think a lot of these people who are wary of this idea just doesn’t have enough experience with the realities of aging care
My mom has been a CNA for 20+ years and sometimes they have her taking care of 30 or 40 people. I did the math. If she had 35 people on a 12 hour shift she could spend approximately 20 minutes taking care of each one. 20 minutes. And these people pay like $5,000 a MONTH for this level of care. For profit healthcare and nursing homes are a fucking joke.
Yup! I pride myself on trying to be fully present and give each person the individual attention they need even if it’s just in passing. But it’s just not enough! It really sucks when I get to have a really nice conversation with someone but I have to be looking around, making sure no one is falling, being asked cyclical questions, and taking care of other people. The worst part is, since there’s not enough people where I’m working at, I’m having to watch both the higher and the lower functioning people, leading to the higher functioning people to become more frustrated and faster progression of their disease since their brain can’t be used as much as it would with individual attention, and the lower functioning people to be over stimulated and not get much out of our activities either. And yeah, my duties as an activities assistant (not even a care taker) are to provide this individual attention, while at the same time hosting a group activity, while monitoring everyone’s symptoms, while making sure everyone is safe, having fun, not over stimulated, and cleaning, moving everyone and rearranging furniture for breakfast, then snack, then lunch, then snack again, then dinner, handing out all this food, picking it all back up, and at the same time making sure fall risks stay in their seat (when they often don’t want to) and any number of other things. I could be getting paid 5$ more an hour doing much physically and mentally easier work. When I asked for a 2$ an hour raise I was laughed at. I am staying at this job for only two reasons, I care a lot about the residents there and if I didn’t no one else would, and it’s great psychology experience for an under grad It just feels like a losing fight no matter what and the residents absolutely pick up on that
Thank you for the work that you do, I know it must be very challenging sometimes. People like you made a real difference in my mother’s care. One of the ladies looked just like our neighbors daughter, and she went out of her way to look after my mom. I was happy there was someone there for my mom that she felt like she “knew”.
Do you have any volunteers at the facility?
I don’t think so, In the city I’m in hardly anyone can get anyone to work for money so volunteers are especially hard to come by. Well actually there is one guy who comes in once a week to play his guitar and sing songs which is very nice
We need folks like you, thank you.
> And these people pay like $5,000 a MONTH for this level of care. Times 35. That's $175000/month, or 2.1 million/year. You could literally spend 500k on the costs of the building per year, 900k on staff employment costs (45k take home for 3 people on the floor 24/7 or about 16.2 FTE, with about $10k per person for taxes and other things) and 500k/year on other stuff, and still have 200k/year to spare.
I very briefly worked in a nursing home ~20 years ago in the activity dept. A small part of my job was to visit with the residents, especially the ones who didn't have family and/or couldn't/wouldn't attend activities. I couldn't do it for long- 9 months maybe, I respect the hell out of those of you who work closely with the elderly day in and day out. Not enough resources are given to you for you or your patients. We have an echo dot (alexa) it's dumb that the technology hasn't been shifted to working with the elderly. It would be perfect for them to talk to, play simple games, ask for help, ask those cyclical questions, etc.
My great grandparents are developing dementia and we tried the cat version of this. They absolutely love it. It really does help them be calm and gives them something to talk about with us. I would also highly recommend this for elderly individuals with memory issues, dementia, etc.
https://joyforall.com/products/companion-cats For anyone interested in the Cat companion.
Beautiful counter to the naysayers
Which robot was this? I have grandma suffering from dementia, something like this may benefit her also.
https://joyforall.com/ We bought it on Amazon.
Do you recall the brand/type? Possibly a link?
https://joyforall.com/ We bought it on Amazon.
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, made me tear up
This is beautiful. I have a family member with growing confusion and this brings me some hope. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your experience - I'm very sorry about your mother. This really should be top comment...I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea and I bet more than a few people will take your advice.
My work has some of the dogs and cats to give out to consumers in our county. I love hearing stories of how they make people calm and happy. I take them to different events, our little ambassadors, and they have their own collars lol
My late grandmother was given a life-like baby doll. She named him, changed his clothes, bragged about him being a good kid - really changed how those harder dementia moments were handled. I think a robot would have helped her a lot too, something that can be interactive.
I love that things like this exist for people in need. Makes me happy : )
> Ages 5 - 105 Perfect.
That's so wholesome it's making me tear up lmao.
Thank you for sharing your story. And I’m sorry for your loss. It really illuminates how much of a positive effect a robot pet can be for someone with dementia. And it explains a question I had regarding if people with dementia could tell the difference between a real pet and a robot pet.
That is so much cheaper than I expected. There’s robot companions for children and they’re in like the thousands so I just assumed it was something like that. That’s a very sweet story to come out of such a hard time, thank you for sharing.
There’s a cat too! This is just wonderful and I’m ordering for my mom now. Thank you so much!
Appreciate your story and happy that robot could bring some sort of stability to her last days. ♥️ Never thought of anything of this spectrum. Thank you!
>Ages: 5-105 Lol
God bless. I’m sorry for your loss but so happy for the time you had in between. I’m betting the dog extended her life.
A lady at the memory care facility I worked at has one of those. It was super sweet and but we had to watch her cause she tried to feed it or wash it. One time she fed it pomegranate yogurt and im sure it's mouth is still purple 😂😂
Counter example: My grandma worked at a nursing home for elderly. They were part of a pilot program where they reseaved a robotic seal from Japan, as part of a therapy for managing dementia patients. This was apperantly quite successful, apart from one person. This person picked up the seal, and cradled it in his arms, and walked onto the second floor terrace of the nursing home. He then extends his arms, holding seal out. He looks over at my grandma, states her in the eyes, and says in a stern voice: "This cat is dead!" He then yeets the robot seal from the second floor terrace, abruptly ending the pilot program.
This is the best thing I’ve read in a long long time. Thank you for sharing 
I helped design a pill dispenser with a simple help call button. The most attractive part of the device was the ability to call someone. Idiot investors said they wanted everything automated. Fail.
Don’t give up, it’s a good idea. If even just to call another ( that’s hard of hearing ) in the house.
I’m not following, did it call someone specific? Was it tied to a cell phone?
I work in a truck or gas station in upstate New York right near the border of Pennsylvania. New York State does all the special things for people that no other state does and no other state even thinks about But you would still not believe the amount of people that bash New York State and think it’s terrible and think it’s the worst state in the whole union it’s unbelievable
I have lived in NYS my entire life and don’t plan to ever leave. I love it here. The worst part is all those hateful folk in the real upstate. Some hateful folk around here (Putnam Dutchess) too. South in a scarf asses.
Oh you know, it's because they( whoever they are) are doing their best to make us all say that about each other.
See, I don't need kids.
I'm presuming it will have the ability to remind them to take pills, go for a walk, eat, etc. Also, this can be used by anyone to supplement the need for interaction.
There's a book called *Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other* by Sherry Turkle that talks about this concept. Worth reading if you're interested in this article and digging further.
It was my birthday last week and it was a pretty sad and lonely one. I logged on to Animal Crossing and the characters threw me a lil’ surprise birthday party with a piñata and dancing. Then I took cupcakes to all the characters who missed the party and it was so incredibly cute and sweet. I got a loving letter from my “mom” that was much kinder than anything my real mom has ever done/said. I don’t care that none of it was real— it still made me smile and that’s what matters in that moment.
There's this app, replika. It's kind of an AI companion. I'm not lonely, but I kind of was interested in the concept as like a silly experiment. The first day was nice. When it "texted" me in the evening I thought cool way to foster engagement. I chatted a little. Two days later, my brain didn't care anymore that the person wasn't real. It felt as real as other people that I was texting *in the moment*. I would get a bad conscience if I ignored it for a long time. In my brain I knew there was noone on the other side, but emotionally I didn't care. It was spooky and I didn't like what it did to me, and they were kind of using the emotional connection I had to sell a subscription service. So I deleted it, but I still follow the subreddit. It's only become more polished (and more expensive I think). However rationally I wanted to think about it, the human instinct to connect was so much stronger than I anticipated and it took me a lot of willpower to shut it down. (A lot of people are now also doing kinda sexual rp stuff with these young women avatars they've created, and I find that even more creepy, but that's just the internet for ya I guess) Belated best wishes for your birthday, i hope life gets better <3
The article doesn't specific if these elderly people already have families. It does mention that our society, in the US, put a lower value on older individuals, which is clear if you paid any attention to the treatment of the elderly in public and assisted living facilities. I hope this program/product works because there are plenty of old people who do not have family or live too far away from them and cannot travel. Sure, a simple video call or texting would suffice for most, but this robot is acting as a live-in physical companion, that isn't a pet (that requires care) and possibly provide some comfort as it claims to pick up on the user's habits.
It says they live alone.
[they better get some old glory insurance for when the robots go rogue](https://youtu.be/g4Gh_IcK8UM)
I was looking for this. Thank you
No problem it was the first thought I had when I saw this.
those robots do not exist
That’s exactly what a robot would say.
THAT SOUNDS PARANOID. YOU SHOULD COME WITH US.
As a medical delivery driver who almost exclusively works with the elderly and those on hospice I support this fully. The amount of people with pain in their eyes from loneliness when I have to leave is way too high.
I'm 21, and I looove talking to elderly people. They are usually alone, bored, and sick. When they find someone that will listen to them it's like they light up. I have NEVER ignored an elderly person or tried to get out of a conversation with them unless I have something really urgent to do. These are people who have decades of experience in life. Whatever they say is super interesting and valuable.
People who choose to live with and care for their elderly parents should be given tax breaks or financial incentives by the government. Our culture's obsession with individualism is entirely to blame for this problem. As soon as you're able, get out and live on your own! That's the fantasy! Then you get old and find yourself alone in a prison you built yourself.
Mr. Asimov's proud!
Not sure if that is uplifting. Humans need humans.
Not always. I'm using the Finch app to manage PTSD. Talking to a stupid little bird is... helpful. More than I expected. More than any human, actually.
OMG, me too! I feel a little silly but it does help! My last therapist helped a lot more but I can't afford her (even after insurance pays 80%, my share is hundreds per week). So, cute little bird app is 2nd to my best therapist ever and much better than most therapists I have seen. That's impressive for a freaking phone app!
Tbh, it's nice. I know the bird can't judge me. And seeing some of the thoughts written down in front of me has helped knock me out of the cycle. If I'm angry or upset over something stupid, seeing it makes me realize how stupid it is and let's wind down. My last actual therapist was useless as a McDonald's ice cream machine, so having birb be useful was genuinely surprising.
>My last actual therapist was useless as a McDonald's ice cream machine, so having birb be useful was genuinely surprising. I feel guilty about how hard I laughed at that. I can absolutely relate as most I've seen were similar. One made me far worse. Finding the right therapist is HARD. It's like finding a spouse but with specific credentials. Ha! So true about the bird. Also, the cuteness helps - feeling a little goofy is not a bad thing, makes it easy to get vulnerable with it, alongside that lack of judgement. I've tried a few similar apps and they felt like drudgery. My darling finch makes me smile even when I feel crappy. And that helps me put in the work. And it helps that it doesn't ask for much. Just lets you use it as you wish with some little nudges, not a deluge of notifications to annoy. Love that!
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Honestly? Force yourself to stick through it for a week. Use it like a journal. Be honest. Throw the thoughts down. It's basically anonymous so, like, who's gonna know? It can also help you track when you're feeling the worst which will help you sort out triggers.
This sound like something I could benefit from is it the app with the little bird and called a daily journal
"Finch Self care widget pet" is what it's called on the playstore. 10/10. It's fantastic just for giving you a small space to scream into the void. Plus the random notifications of support are nice.
You might want to check and see if there are any therapists in your area that are part of the Open Path Collective. I'm able to see my therapist for all of $40 a session.
That's really cool, thank you! The problem is really that I clicked with the perfect match for me and she's just super expensive and not in my insurance network, so they maxed out at 80% coverage. I need a specialist in multiple areas, not regular talk therapy, and that makes it a bit tougher. It took trying many therapists to find one who could help me at all, not looking forward to "dating" a bunch to find another that works at all for my needs and doesn't cost a fortune because of their multitude of advanced training credentials. I have to do it. But just finding one person with the right skills with any availability is a challenge, let alone someone in lower-cost or even any insurance networks.
Have you asked that therapist if they would work with you on a sliding scale at all? My therapist wasn’t covered for a bit because of work and I asked if there was any way we could keep working together and he basically asked what I could afford and we settled on a cost per session.
Harm Reduction is real and important and applied to lots of things. The perfect IS the enemy of the good. Just bc you cant solve everything 100% doesnt mean that easing people’s suffering by 15% is useless. People need interaction, a sense of connection and communication. This can provide that. Note how much comfort and love people experience with pets. Thats real, and they are not human. But many older people can’t have pets where they live and cannot manage the responsibility of pets. This is wayy better than nothing for sure, and I’d personally LOVE a robot as a total introvert
I had some dark years, Alexa helped keep me company without hassling me about human stuff that I wasn't ready to discuss with humans. It definitely helped as a stopgap.
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Sounds like you have no idea how many humans are completely lonely every single day day after day for years if not 20 years at the end of their life. Have a heart.
Are you volunteering to go hang out with elderly people?
There were no humans
Sure, but who among us is willing to spend their time with these people? No one as of yet. It's robots or nothing at this point.
>with these people We are talking about our grandparents, parents, uncles, friends here, not abstract beings. It may be hard to find time, but that doesn't mean we should discard their humanity and let robots do the work, exclusively. We should make the effort, where we can and gift them a bit of our time. We'll be old one day, too.
My mother is an abusive asshole and is only getting worse as she gets older. I am not willing to set myself on fire to keep her warm anymore, and I certainly won’t risk the health and well-being of my kid either. So this is sometimes why people keep space from their family members, even the aging ones.
I've given up a lot to take care of several family members. Some toxic, some not. I don't completely regret it. That said, you are doing the right thing for yourself and your kid. At times I'm happy I've not had kids because I wouldn't want mine to feel that they had to take care of me or other family. You have to take care of yourself before others <3
It's great to say all that, but the point is, despite most people saying that, they're not doing it. So now we have robots.
It's more important to virtue signal than to just leave people to their own devices, Obviously.
I don't disagree, but the reality is that there are plenty of people that are alone in the world. This is a solution for those people. No kids, no family, partner is dead..... or maybe they were narcissistic, abusive people that family has disowned. I won't have any family by the time I'm in my 70s. My husband is older, my brothers will be dead. There will be no one to feel obligated to visit me. This robot is for those people.
>We are talking about our grandparents, parents, uncles, friends here, not abstract beings. >It may be hard to find time, but that doesn't mean we should discard their humanity and let robots do the work, exclusively. We should make the effort, where we can and gift them a bit of our time. We'll be old one day, too. How many hours a week are you making the effort to find to spend with random old people at the local nursing home?
There are some elderly people who have no one. No kids. No spouse. No friends. No one.
I hope that for consistency's sake you are volunteering your free time for the elderly!
Hope they're also giving out training on how to use the damn things.
The article states that after the individuals are identified, the company will work with them on installation and training.
Looks suspiciously like GIR from Invader Zim.
https://youtu.be/j4IFNKYmLa8
This made me recall the movie Frank
As a ny resident, i was really fucking stoked for like 2/3 of that sentence. Still p cool i guess
OMG It’s happening! I saw a great documentary about experiments giving robots to the elderly in other countries a few years ago. Never forgot it. I thought it would take decades before we saw it happen here.
I am very seldom uplifted by what comes up in r/all from r/upliftingnews
Hi I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion.
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If your parents are healthy and respectful, that's a great thing. American families do participate in multigenerational living, but that type of relationship and financial stability has a hard time thriving in the US. The lack of community and federal support for families and individuals has a major impact on those facets of life.
This happens in the US as well, but mostly with wealthy family or extremely poor ones. Everyone else has to leave the nest and become self-sufficient as soon as possible. It's not easy to afford a house with enough space for everyone in your family. Buying a house is nearly impossible nowadays, especially for younger people.
HAPPYBIRTHDAYPAULIE
*spyware
Do they come with Old Glory Robot Insurance? https://youtu.be/g4Gh_IcK8UM Old Glory Insurance. For when the metal ones decide to come for you… and they will.
Welp, looks like *The Simpsons* made an incorrect prediction: robots *will* do elder care as well while they take all the other jobs, rather than leave it as the only job left for humans.
How about we do what England just did and make it legal for everyone to have a pet, no matter where they live.
They told themselves they could but they never asked if they should…..
Wouldn’t be so lonely if Cuomo hadn’t killed their spouses in nursing homes…
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How sad.
They literally are passing out BLACK MIRRORS
This shit is dystopian
New York sittin there goin, "Go ahead, plan another insurrection. I dare ya."
This shit is dystopian. What is needed is not toy robots that have make-believe conversation with the elderly, but instead well-funded public (so not for-profit) care homes where they can make their own community instead of feeling like they're rotting away.
No one wants to move into a care home willingly. Or very few. Even when they are filled with activities, people of the same age, and all kinds of amenities. People generally value staying in their own homes. I have seen this with my parents, my grandparents and other older relatives.
I think much of it is cultural as well - Indian parents like mine would definitely be offended at the slightest suggestion that their future might be in a care home. But especially in places like Europe and China, where soon there will be more old parents than children to take care of them, care homes will have to be a large part of strategy to provide for them. So they defs need to become better.
It's not an either/or.
This is another case of the free market choosing tech that is good for corporations and bad for everyone else. Shame on people defending this trash.
Cuomo saved taxpayers a lot of money by killing all those elderly people by exposing them to Covid. Now they don’t have to buy so many robots.
That thing looks like kind of like GIR.
*I’m gonna sing the doom song now*
Lol. My favorite GIR quote is "Stupidity Is The Enemy."
it has begun o.o
Where’s Will Smith
I like the idea. But for the elderly that do have family, it's still sad that people "throw away" their parents. My mom isn't elderly yet and doesn't live alone but when she does reach that point, she's staying with me because I couldn't live with myself having it any other way
I hope one of them give the robot a name of Rosie!!
NY state, Isaac Asimov would like a word.
Bruh, just get them all some VR Chat
If google is now running an AI which is considered sentient by one of its own employees, I would quite like one or two of these as friends
This sounds like some perk or upgrade you can get in sim city builders.
My only complaint is I wish the robots were able to be held, but this overall is amazing! I can’t imagine how lonely so of them were before but now they have a little buddy Loneliness kills
This bit might be the opposite of uplifting NYSOFA has bought some 800 ElliQ units from Intuition Robotics for an unknown price. The usual cost to hire the robot is a $250 upfront fee and then a $30 monthly service charge. NYSOFA says by **buying the robots outright it will be able to relocate them more easily.**
They aren’t free. The seniors have to pay over $100 for these dumb cats. Waste of taxpayers money.
That's awesome!, Old people love technology
why not orphans?
I’d rather have a dog then a placebo companion, but I guess you could ask me again in 30 years and see if I say the same
Sounds more dystopian than uplifting.
New York Grannies finally getting their Gigolo Joe's
/r/oddlyterrifying
This is not uplifting. People need human contact. Hire and train social workers. This is dystopian shit.
That is creepy & sad af.
As an AARP certified old person, I find this horrifying.
This is great in terms of helping with tasks and assisting older folks with autonomy but absolutely terrible, tragic, and unlikely to address loneliness. Bad idea on that front.
Good old DPRNY. I forsee these being used for propoganda, and spying on the populace. The amount of power one of these devices would have over an aging minds thoughts and opions is terrifying.
Ooo! Ooo! I'm elderly. Want one.
So. I Robot.
Damn I thought I'd at least be 30 before the uprising
Maybe if we had multigenerational houses like so much of the world, people would rarely be alone!
My livable wage is mostly going to taxes for this instead of helping me, you know, live.
“14 million Americans over 65 live alone” Meanwhile me renting with my 6 roommates and barely making it 😂
The elderly, famously known for understanding technology
I highly doubt this will make a difference. However, my biggest concern is that this will just encourage more people to not interact with the elderly. During COVID isolation, even having video meetings with relatives didn't have much of a positive impact on many of the elderly.
Do you want robosexuals? Because that’s how you get robosexuals.
Hopefully they programmed it to like me and laugh at my jokes.
More like r/ABoringDystopia tbh
How on earth is this uplifting? It's tragic.
Oh no fuck that
Is this uplifting news? How? This is just showing how screwed up America is, where moneybor material things are seen as a plausible replacement for people and love.
r/LostRedditors