Aged Care & Robots

I watched the ABC's 4 Corners Program last night on the problems associated with the frail aged in nursing homes. It was extremely disturbing to say the least. My partner couldn't take the graphic scenes of bedsores and wounds so missed some of the report. As both of us have parents entering the frail-aged state the problems of how to care for them when they get so needy is worrying.
Mother-in-law already needs some care and has been uprooted from her home and country to reside, uneasily, in Australia. Her needs are simple but not easily met. Her physical health is slowly deteriorating so we all wonder what will happen when she needs full-time care. Her children work full-time and will probably find it very difficult to reduce their lives to the needs of a highly dependent frail woman.
Mother is hanging onto her home and doesn't want to downsize to an independent unit in an Aged Facility. She lives overseas and not easily reached by any of the family other than a nephew nearly her age. She is the main visitor to her older sister, currently going downhill in a nursing home.

So what does my family and system do when mum needs care? Do her 3 children who live in different countries need to develop a plan? And I wonder what she will say. She is fiercely independent and doesn't want to be a burden.

And I shudder to think how the system will cope when those in their 50's - 60's reach the need for aged care as the system will have surely failed under the pressure, unless more funding, carers and systems are in place. I'm sure these people will shout long and loud about their needs.

Ah, perhaps technology will provide the answer as the following article in the Australian Senior Newspaper discusses. Do Robots Care? "Designed especially to assist seniors, the robots will be able to track facial expressions and other cues to evaluate the emotional state of hospital patients or interact with older people living in their own homes."
Obviously they're not designed for appropriate physical care of the patients though. Perhaps emotionally intelligent robots haven't got that ability yet! The next page in the newspaper shows a cartoon with Dr Who's eternal nemesis, the Dalek. Of course the solution here is "Exterminate"