CLEANING & HYGIENE
ROBOT REVOLUTION
As the population ages and staff shortages continue to bite, will robots become increasingly prominent in the care sector? Liam Mynes from Tork manufacturer Essity considers how technology in general can make a positive contribution to the care home environment – both in cleaning and beyond.
There has been a great deal of talk about introducing robots into the care home sector over recent years.
The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated a need for non-human team members which would be able to perform simple tasks without incurring any infection risk.
In fact, multiple attempts have been made to introduce automated systems into care homes. Various types of robots have been trialled in Japan, for example, with mixed levels of success.
“Residential facilities in the US are also increasingly using social care robots to interact with residents and free up staff for other tasks.”
One of these is the ‘Hug’ machine, designed to prevent care workers from having to perform manual liſting tasks. But when it was first introduced, staff members complained that it was too heavy and cumbersome to wheel from room to room – which rather defeated the robot’s purpose. And since only a small percentage of residents were able to be liſted comfortably by the Hug, many facilities stopped using it aſter just a few days.
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Another robot pioneered in Japan is Paro, an animal therapy automaton in the shape of a fluffy seal. Paro initially proved fairly successful among the elderly who enjoyed interacting with it. But some residents became so attached to Paro that they refused to eat meals or go to bed without it, leading to distress and anxiety.
A third robot, Pepper, has been in existence for some 10 years and was first introduced to run recreational exercise sessions. This humanoid machine played upbeat music and demonstrated simple upper-body exercises for residents to follow.
But the number of routines on offer was fairly limited and residents quickly became bored. Others would only join in if a member of staff did so as well, which effectively turned the robot into an expensive music player.
A ‘culturally competent’ version of Pepper has since been introduced to help boost residents’ emotional wellbeing. This machine can be loaded with relevant cultural data to enable it to hold a conversation with residents on various topics such as, say, football or rugby.
Again, this robot initially proved relatively successful. However, residents reported no significant improvement to their loneliness levels aſter interacting with it which suggested the robot was unable to replace a human in terms of company.
Residential facilities in the US are also increasingly using social care robots to interact with residents and free up staff for other tasks. Some of these machines incorporate screens on to which residents’ families can upload their photographs.
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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