Remember being forced to stay indoors? Only being able to leave for exercise within a few kilometres of your house? Or doing at home workouts and finding trendy baking recipes as a pass time? 

Meanwhile health care workers were sent into battle with masks as protection. 

The COVID-19 pandemic put the healthcare system under a microscope. The virus’s rapid and relentless nature exposed systematic cracks of care facilities. 

Aged care workers did everything they could to help maintain their personal safety during the pandemic. As a consequence some residents were locked in their rooms for weeks on end, alone. 

Advocare chief executive Louise Forster says the pandemic had a horrendous impact on people’s loneliness in residential care. 

“Imagine a seasaw. On one end is infection control and on the other side is social isolation and loneliness,” she says. “Both sides kill.”

Forster says this was a huge human rights issue and loneliness caused premature death in aged care homes: “The media reported lots of deaths in hospitals. The equivalent was happening in aged care, but people were dying alone.”

Southern Cross Care’s deputy chief executive and customer operations officer Janelle McFarlane says border closures saw extreme staffing issues in aged care. 

“We rely heavily on international students,” she says. “When immigration was reduced the impacts were felt by the staff, and our residents.”  

The hurdles the sector experienced during the pandemic highlighted the potential for artificial intelligence to help streamline tasks.

According to IBM, AI is a technology combining computer science and datasets for problem solving. 

In November 2022 an AI chatbot called ChatGPT was made available to the public for free, prompting a surge of interest in the technology. Owned by OpenAI, it uses the text it has been trained on to make up new sentences, stories and essays in response to user questions, mimicking human-like interactions. 

Many companies are interested in developing these technologies and fast movement throughout 2023 and 2024 is anticipated.

McFarlane says with an uneven staff-to-resident ratio, AI could be used for simple tasks such as monitoring elderly residents: “People living with dementia are at risk of falling over or wandering off, and so tracking devices and fall detector technology is something to consider.”

Forster agrees but warns that people in later stages of a dementia diagnosis might not be mentally able to make their own decisions, such as consenting to wearing tracking devices. She questions the ethics of tracking people who lack total agency: “It’s great in theory but who gets to decide how we live our life at any age? If someone isn’t able to consent, should we be using the technology at all?”

She says there is a scary line between technology assisting humans and humans relying on technology. 

Asked why the staffing situation is so dire that AI assistance is being considered, McFarlane explains there has been an increase in medically compromised people living in care facilities:

“Lots of our patients are quite unwell and need care 24 hours a day which makes the work very demanding,” she says.

Breaking it down further Forster says it’s because the number of beds in aged care hasn’t increased to match the growing population, and so now people go into care only when it is really necessary: “They are usually within the last 18 months of their life when they go into care.” 

When someone is incapable of caring for themselves and is too unwell for a relative to constantly nurture them, that’s when they might be admitted into a care facility. 

Former nurse and retiree Sue Hubbard had to make the tough decision of sending her husband Brian to live in aged care. 

Sue and Brian were happily married for 52 years. The couple enjoyed adventurous holidays and taking their dog on long walks every day. A few months after returning from a holiday in 2014 Sue’s fear her husband’s mind wasn’t what it used to be, became a reality. 

“He ran into the living room sopping wet and fully clothed. He had showered with his clothes on”, says Sue as she carefully stirs the sugar into her coffee. Brian was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s soon after.  

With 46 years of experience in healthcare, Sue nursed Brian for five years. This included feeding, bathing, and dressing her husband. However, in time Sue became physically incapable of caring for Brian: “He would fall over. I couldn’t pick him up. It was starting to affect my health.” 

Sue knew it was the right decision for Brian to live in aged care but she couldn’t help but feel like she failed her husband. “Having to put someone you love into care because you can’t cope anymore. It’s heartbreaking, and it took a lot of adjusting,” says Sue as tears begin to fill her eyes. 

She visited her husband every day, but for some resident’s visitors weren’t common: “There would be people who went weeks without having a single visitor. It’s the equivalent of them being dumped and forgotten about.”

Forster confirms that this is what life is like for many residents and says if the only people in someone’s life are paid to be there it isn’t meaningful at all. This isolation gives rise to discussion about how technology, such as AI and ChatGPT, could help combat resident loneliness. 

Monash University professor Alan Petersen says AI has the potential to enrich the lives of people living in aged care. Professor Petersen and other scholars conducted research during the pandemic on the use of AI in long-term care. He says in this context: “AI is something used to reduce deficit, which means when used there is an assumed issue to solve.”

Professor Petersen says new developments such as ChatGPT might benefit residents by offering companionship: “Even having the opportunity to have a conversation would be beneficial to residents because at least they are having some sort of interaction.” 

McFarlane also sees potential of AI in the form of deep fakes. 

“People with dementia might call their family 10 times a day because they forget who they’ve just spoken to. I think if there was perhaps an iPad with an AI impersonation of their family, and they could redirect their conversations to that AI, and it could take some pressure off the family.”

While AI has the potential to generate human-like interactions or conversations, Forster says real human connection is irreplaceable. 

“You will never truly meet social connection needs through technology. AI can only enhance connection.”

According to a 2021 journal article co-written by Professor Petersen, AI could help engage residents in long-term care.

“I can see interactive robots being utilised especially amongst people living with dementia,” he says.

McFarlane says people with dementia respond well to doll therapy, which involves the use of toy dolls as an activity: “Having something to nurture is really great for our residents it gives them purpose.”

McFarlane says the dolls could be further developed to become even more realistic, and interactive, to enhance the experience. 

But since AI is still in the early days of development, not everyone is fully aware of how it functions, or how it could potentially malfunction.

Professor Petersen says as people don’t know much about the technology they use their imagination which might cause some misconceptions: “When there is a lack of information people fill in the gaps with pop culture knowledge to try and make sense of the situation.”

“I think lots of people are scared humans will be replaced by robots. We’ve seen the movies. That scenario won’t work”, says Professor Petersen. 

Forster agrees with him and says technology shouldn’t be created as a replacement for human care, but as an assistant: “I think the most important thing is to spend time with the people we are trying to help,” she says. “To really try and understand the needs of staff and residents in care homes.

“If artificial intelligence is used and tested holistically, there could be a bright future for it.”