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How Will You Get Elder Care When You Need It?

David Chilton, The Wealthy Barber, asked me on his podcast how people should make sure they can get elder care when they need it.  There are no great answers here, but maybe some hope.

There just aren’t enough young people to help all the aging baby boomers who will need care in their homes or in a long-term care facility.  To be one of the people who doesn’t get left out, there are two major solutions: reserve some money for this purpose or cultivate good relationships with your children, or other younger family members, or possibly neighbours.

This is as far as I got on the podcast.  It’s a gloomy picture.  But there is some hope: technology.  We may be a long way from fully humanoid AI bots that do our bidding, but lesser technology may come along to ease the burden of taking care of elders.

We can imagine improvements in automatic vacuums for cleaning up messes, or better automation of a bed to move people to or from a wheelchair or a standing position.  Perhaps we’ll have a small room for just a toilet that seals shut and water cleans the whole small room.  Maybe there will be machines to help elders get clothing on and off.

I have no idea what type of technology will come along first, but we can certainly imagine technology that could help one young person do the work currently done by two elder-care workers.  Without any such advances, I fear that some elderly people will lose the numbers game and be left with poor care.

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