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Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

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Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#51

Post by defrost »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36
defrost wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than just a "tier of easy internet for the elderly" as that alone won't ease the suspicion that something might be going wrong. There's demand for trusted verified handling of regular financial life interactions, bill paying, hiccups from cards being changed and regular direct debits needing resetting, etc. Much like, Chubb (for example) remote monitor home security with liability should one of their employ…

https://www.truelinkfinancial.com/ Found them here long ago (YC S13), used them with an alcoholic parent I was acting in a guardian capacity for. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=truelink

That appears to be a useful solution to part of the challenges in the domain.

I'm not sure what countries that spans (I'm in Australia) so there's perhaps scope for others to expand across other geographic locations.

There's also the "don't babysit me" aspect, a good number of elders are often slowly diminishing in capability and have no desire to be immediately shifted to a full guardianship when what they want is incrementally increasing trusted oversight that they are in control of.

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#52

Post by defrost »

Duanemclemore wrote: post #42
insane_dreamer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans have no problem using them

Every home I've done for a wealthy person, regardless of age, had bidets. But they're also rich enough to hire people to take care of them as they age. Coming from a working class background, the perception of "European-ness" is the exact - and possibly only - reason your average American old dude wouldn't use one.

I've talked with elderly blue collar working class Australian's who've encountered { bidet's | jet washing arses } for the first time .. once they've used them they almost all 100% don't need convincing that they're desirable.

It's literally an ad campaign | marketing problem .. and given how popular pressure washing youtube videos are, there's one angle to work from :-)

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#54

Post by dzek69 »

dgellow wrote: post #43
insane_dreamer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europeans have no problem using them

Never seen a bidet in Europe. What country do you have in mind?

In Poland it's rare, but it's there. I have one and my last two summer vacation stay places had them.

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#55

Post by k310 »

ed wrote: post #46
k310 wrote: post #2

Agree. Simple stuff that people really need is missing. I mean really simple. I can't read product labels even with serious myopia and a magnifying lens. Only Trader Joe's makes readable shelf signage. Use-by dates take 30 seconds to even find. And there are tons more things. I made a list ... It's getting longer. Thanks for posting this.

iOS has a built-in app called “magnifier” which might be more handy than a lens!

Many product labels and prices are situated very high and very low. I end up taking a photo to capture the info.

I also like to visit thrift stores, and being practical, I snap photos of weird and wonderful items rather than buying them.

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#56

Post by episteme »

Duanemclemore wrote: post #25
lolinder wrote: post #9

> or wiping his butt Slightly weird take: bidets have this field fully covered and the only thing stopping them from being widely used (especially in this domain!) is user resistance to an unfamiliar solution to a very personal problem. We don't need new tech for this, we just need a marketing breakthrough.

Having worked in high end residential, I can tell ya the LAST person who's going to want to use a bidet is ironically also the hypothetical "grandpa" who's not rich enough to hire someone to wipe his a$$.

I imagine you are allowed to say ass in this context :)

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#57

Post by Duanemclemore »

episteme wrote: post #56
Duanemclemore wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in high end residential, I can tell ya the LAST person who's going to want to use a bidet is ironically also the hypothetical "grandpa" who's not rich enough to hire someone to wipe his a$$.

I imagine you are allowed to say ass in this context :)

Aw, but it's funny to self-censor for no reason!

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#58

Post by badpun »

The Japanese have been supposedly working on robots to support their aging population for a couple of decades now. It sure seems to be extremely difficult to make progress in this field (and in robotics in general).

Also, as you noted, half the picture are people whose problems are self-inflicted, mostly due to bad lifestyles. Right now, companies profit off bad lifestyles (first by selling them and them by helping to manage consequences). No comercial entity will profit from population keeping itself healthy and balanced, as mostly involves substraction (NOT doing some things) and not addition (doing/buying). It's a awareness and policy issue, and can only be fixed through either campaigns promoting good living, and through policies which enable it (more vacation time for workers, healthier food in stores, less stress due to economic pressures etc.).

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#59

Post by makeset »

lolinder wrote: post #9

> or wiping his butt Slightly weird take: bidets have this field fully covered and the only thing stopping them from being widely used (especially in this domain!) is user resistance to an unfamiliar solution to a very personal problem. We don't need new tech for this, we just need a marketing breakthrough.

To be clear, the original "bidet" fixture as found in some older European bathrooms, a second toilet bowl to squat over and manually wash, is far from useful for anyone, let alone the elderly. If people are horrified to hear the word, that's probably what they are picturing. There's also the shower hose dog wash thing which is almost as bad. To avoid confusion, the toilet seat spray feature (which is great) is often termed "bidet seat" or "washlet".

Re: Tell HN: your next idea should focus on aged care

#60

Post by binary132 »

The reality of elder care is that (especially) infirm old folks really need a lot of hard, difficult, unpleasant care that our economic system has made basically impossible for their children and extended families to perform, as would have probably been done in the past. This requirement isn’t going to go away. There will be no cheap, safe, efficient butt-wiping robot, and unmotivated, uninvolved third parties are going to keep doing lousy jobs and getting old folks hurt. Technology is not going to make much of a dent in this one.
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