Future Gold Coast: Technology helping aged care residents move towards brighter future

Gold Coast aged care residents are being encouraged to play video games as global tech giants team up with local providers to bring technology into the aged care sector. Here’s why.

GAMER grandmas and computerised carers are the future of aged care, as local providers team up with global tech giants to meet market demand.

In the next decade, 20 per cent of Gold Coast residents are expected to be over 65 — up from 16 per cent today.

Feros Care CEO Jennene Buckley said aged-care facilities were already tapping into technology to help meet needs.

As part of an Australian first, the Coolangatta-based provider has joined with Google to set up its Smart Home Technologies for home-based clients, using voice-activated devices.

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Alex McCord with Feros Village residents Hugh Webster and Lois Sanderson

Known as Lifelink, the voice-activated technology is planned to help more than 500 seniors set appointments, issue reminders for medication and conduct searches of the internet without needing a computer in the home.

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A passive monitoring of the home with artificial intelligence could also be installed to learn patterns of behaviours and send alerts if changes are detected.

Feros Care also uses video games at its centres in Kingscliff and Byron Bay, allowing residents over the age of 80 to use PlayStation to combat the onset of dementia.

Research suggests regular gaming significantly improves the ability to switch tasks and maintain visual attention.

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Researcher and project leader Alex McCord playing the video game, Star Wars: Battlefront, with Feros resident Alan Harkness.

“We are ageing. One in five people on the Gold Coast will be aged over 65 in the next 15 years,” Ms Buckley said.

“That ageing impacts on all business, not just aged care, so we need to make sure we are ready and embracing the technology out there.

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“On the Coast you have people often living far away from their families, so loneliness is an issue.

“The technology is not a replacement of face-to-face care, but to enrich it.”

Dr Philip Morris, President of the Gold Coast Medical Association and psychogeriatrician, said the Gold Coast was well positioned to take on the challenges of supporting a senior population.

He believes the increased oversight of the sector is an opportunity for health educators and training institutions to specialise in this field.

“Right now the major concern in the sector over the next years are to ensure proper training of staff, and proper monitoring and regulation of aged-care facilities,” Dr Morris said. “That can lead to more specialisation in geriatric medicine and research on the Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast really is in a wonderful position to be offering aged-care facilities and retirement-type care.

“We have great resources and social and recreational activities, major medical facilities and a deep level of specialist services, and a wonderful climate.”