Robotic Technologies and Well-being for Older Adults Living at Home

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits for aged care providers to add affordable robotic technology in their services packages to enhance the well-being of older adults from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds who choose to live at home. This study, adopting a Transformative service research lens, was performed with a group of Australian older adults from CALD backgrounds aged on average 70 years old. In total, the study conducted four rounds of home trials with three different, commercially available robotic technologies from January to November 2020, each trial lasted seven days. The findings reveal that older adults from CALD backgrounds are open to learning about new technologies and can successfully interact independently with multiple robotic technologies in their own homes. Further, our results indicate that robot technology has the potential to increase the well-being of these older people. The results show that technology can enhance a sense of belonging, independence, and quality of life while living at home. Research limitations/implications - This study shows a promising future involving the use of available technology to assist older people from CALD backgrounds to lead a better life at home. Aging at home can be central to a person’s sense of identity and independence; this study is a big step towards a new aged care system that is sorely needed in a society that experiences a rapidly aging population.