Europe’s population is getting older, placing increasing pressure on already stretched social care systems. In response to this, and thanks to the technological advancements of the last decade, more and more innovations are becoming available that support both users and their caregivers.
The 33rd edition of the European Social Services Conference (ESSC), hosted by the European Social Network (ESN), focused precisely on this: the ways in which technology is helping transform how social care is delivered, and which questions social services must ask themselves to ensure this transformation complies with the principles of person-centredness, data security, participatory governance, and equity.
Ageing populations and growing dependency
In the European Union, the population aged 65 and over is expected to reach 129.8 million by 2050. While living longer gives older people the opportunity to continue pursuing their interests and contributing to their families and society, it comes at a price.
Older age often brings more complex health and social care needs. Paired with the decline in fertility rates, older age also means that fewer people will be available to meet these needs. According to Eurostat, by 2050, more than two-thirds of the EU Member States will have an old-age dependency ratio above 50%: this means that there will be fewer than two people of working age for every person aged 65 and over.
This is where technology comes into play.
Beyond functioning: technologies supporting emotional and brain health
The use of assistive technology is already widespread, especially among older people and people with disabilities. Glasses, white canes, hearing aids, text-to-speech converters, wheelchairs, and prostheses are some of the technologies that have been embraced worldwide and have been found to generate a return on investment of 9:1 at all levels: economic, health, and social.
Now, thanks to further technological developments and the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), care technology goes beyond supporting an individual’s functioning and independence and can provide companionship and cognitive stimulation, thus reducing the need for caregivers to be around as much.
In Slovenia, for instance, the Tončke Hočevar Care and Work Centre, which currently supports 250 users with intellectual disabilities, has employed a social robot to respond to the users’ need for social interaction, emotional connection, and digital access, which could not be fully met due to an overburdened staff. The robot interacts in Slovenian, can recognise faces and emotions, play music, videos, jokes, and puzzles, and facilitates access to the internet for users with limited literacy.
Pritesh Mistry, Policy Fellow at The King’s Fund, United Kingdom, presented a variety of similar robots at this year’s conference, including telepresence robots, which enable remote communication between users and their loved ones, and robotic pets, especially useful in reducing agitation in users with dementia. Pritesh also introduced the audience to the future of robots using generative AI to enhance their communication capabilities or agentic AI to learn routines, habits, and surroundings in order to provide assistance.
Care technology requires terms and conditions
All in all, these technologies promote inclusion, autonomy, and wellbeing while also responding to the simultaneous growth in care demands and the ageing and shortage of the social and health care workforce. However, Pascal Bijleveld, Chief Executive Officer of ATscale, Global Partnership for Assistive Technology, cautioned conference delegates that more advanced technology brings both opportunities and risks: “The more we start to introduce AI-assisted technologies, the more we need to be mindful of algorithmic bias, and the greater is the risk of increasing the digital divide”.
Furthermore, for robots to be effective with people, they must be personalised. To be personalised, they need users’ personal data, which is why Silvia Rossi, Full Professor in Computer Science at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, called for specific regulations to protect users’ privacy and address the ethical dilemmas associated with the use of AI. In this regard, the EU is already one step ahead with its adoption, in June 2024, of the Artificial Intelligence Act, the world’s first comprehensive legislation on the subject.
Similarly, for robots to be accepted by people, they need to be designed and implemented in co-creation with end-users. In Spain, VidAAs (Vanguard Innovation Centre for Active and Healthy Autonomous Development), driven by the Regional Government of Navarra, supports the creation of participatory innovation spaces where researchers and entrepreneurs come together with citizens with varying needs to create new solutions that improve people's quality of life and independence.
The future of care technology
Technology is here to stay, and resisting its deployment in social care is of little use. Our efforts must instead focus on ensuring that care technologies respond to users’ actual needs, achievable through co-production, and that both users and caregivers are adequately trained on how to adopt and adapt these technologies safely. Furthermore, we must advocate for quality, accessible, and affordable technology at the universal level, including in low-resource settings, to reduce inequality.
Robots can do wonders in combating loneliness and cognitive decline for the most vulnerable people, but we also need to acknowledge their limitations and accept the fact that they cannot and should not work fully autonomously, but rather in tandem with humans. As Verena Staats, Chairwoman of the German Association for Public and Private Welfare, highlighted: “The use of care technology is not intended to replace human contact, but rather to relieve caregivers from tasks that can indeed be automated so that they can focus on the tasks that matter most”.
