Is Motion Detection Really Necessary for Elderly Care?
As healthcare and technology evolves, the life expectancy of humans will continue to increase. In 2015, an eight of the world’s population was aged over 60. By 2030, this number is expected to have increased to a sixth. Additionally, the number of people aged 80 or over is expected to more than triple by 2050. Due to the difficulty of elderly care and the shortage of staff, many groups of people are working on using technology to monitor elderly people in their homes.
One aspect of this monitoring is motion detection. This technology is used to detect when something moves within its range of vision. The premise behind this is that if somebody has been stationary for an extended period of time, an alert will be sent out, informing a family member or carer. There are several kinds of motion detector, but the most common will either detect body heat or transmit waves and record how they are reflected back. This seems like a good idea, as it can ensure help is sent out when it is necessary. However, there are significant drawbacks to this system.
Firstly, elderly people would have to follow a strict schedule. This is because the system would send an alert if they were sleeping earlier or later than expected, even if they are absolutely fine. The best way to avoid this is to have the person in care set when they go to bed and wake up in order to disable the system. However, this also raises problems, such as if they forget to turn it off or on. Additionally, if the person in care enjoys watching television and other activities that don’t require motion, false alarms are likely to be sent whenever they do so for a while. This could make the system unreliable.
Secondly, there are complications if there are multiple people in the same living space. For example, if a family needs to take care of both mum and dad, they will both have to be monitored. This makes it much more difficult to monitor, as a movement from either of them will prevent an alert. If one person is moving but another is not, it would be best to send a signal to check the one that isn’t moving. Unfortunately, this system would be unable to do so.
Lastly, the use of motion detection in elderly care could be considered an invasion of privacy. This is because the data from the devices would need to be saved or sent to a server for review, meaning that the activities of the people being monitored would be constantly recorded. Many would disagree with this concept, as this seems far too intrusive. However, it is a necessary part of the system and cannot be easily change. Therefore, the people in care would need to be informed that they are being monitored.
Over all, systems like this can be helpful in the care of elderly people, and will likely see greater use in the next few decades. However, the difficulties associated with it mean that, in my opinion, there are better options available.
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