Who Will Care for the Carers?
AS AUTOMATION GRINDS ITS WAY through industry after industry, some sectors still demand a human touch. Emotional skills and social interactions are far harder to mechanize than factory lines or even surgery. A recent McKinsey Global Institute report estimates that while most occupations could see at least 30 percent of their jobs automated, for home health aides or care workers, the figure is a mere 11 percent. It’s far easier to build a computerized driver than a robot nurse.
The work of caring for older adults and people living with disabilities is often physical—changing sheets, carefully lifting and washing bodies, monitoring and administering medication—but just as frequently emotional. Companionship and compassion are skills difficult to outsource or automate.
The harmful impacts of social isolation are widely known; one AARP study found that isolated older adults were 50 percent more likely to die over a six-year period than
