The state of New York recently announced the launch of a new robotic companion for people in senior homes. The local government considers this advancement a step in providing a better service for the state's older adults. The machines will come as common virtual assistants that maintain guidance and connection between the aged individuals living in assisted living facilities.
This small step is an approach to giving solutions for senior homes against the risks of isolation to the mental health and emotional state of older adults.
The distribution of companion robots across the state was led by the New York State Office for the Aging or NYSOFA.
Isolation in Senior Homes
Through the years of challenges brought by the pandemic, the United States faced a lot of hardships regarding the facilitation and maintenance of residents living in senior homes. Like other countries, the government relied on technological devices to keep the connections between the older adults and their families amidst the strict health protocols.
Among the most memorable steps, many states provided to retirement communities ranged from advanced communication devices to animatronic pets.
Today, the NY SOFA constructed another solution that will give joy to senior citizens and prevent them from the impacts of intense isolation caused by the restrictions. The devices the state department saw fit for the job are the units from Intuition Robotics called ElliQ.
The ElliQ robots are embedded with an artificial intelligence program that would meet the required attention and level of companionship needed by individuals in continuing care.
The robotic unit comes with a tablet on its dock that users could modify depending on their preference. Alongside the available controls, the robot could also recognize the voices of its users for remote commands and simple questions older adults might want to ask.
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ElliQ by Intuition Robotics
The launch of ElliQ throughout the continuing care facilities of the state was announced last month. In the first phase of its distribution, the local department selected 59 county areas with assisted living agency partners located in them, according to NYSOFA Public Information director Roger Noyes.
The next phases will study what age groups are the most comfortable with using the robots and have the most improvement rates in terms of companionship aspects provided by the machines.
Criteria that will be considered to determine how the older people improve from isolation through the AI-powered robots include age, interest, and comprehensive assessment. The additional data will be collected through the outcomes recorded from the metric gains, self-reporting, and interactive relationships of the community with the machines and the team behind ElliQ.
Noyes explained that they targeted retirement facilities due to their needs since the surge of COVID-19. The isolation that senior citizens and other age groups could experience could deeply impact their physical health and public health expenditures.
Intuition Robotics marketing director Grace Andruszkiewicz said that the New York state has 800 ElliQ units already set for distribution. This will contribute to more than 4,000 units of animatronic pets in retirement homes that showed a 70 percent decrease in the loneliness of the residents, reports Government Technology.
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