As staff shortages grow, a Munich startup is testing and training childlike AI companions designed to talk, remember and emotionally connect with the elderly — without ever losing patience.
Tag: care
Caregiving is still culturally framed as exceptional when done by men, even though true gender equality requires it to be routine — not praised, but expected. Despite growing awareness, women still shoulder the majority of care work, and shifting this imbalance means redefining care as a shared human responsibility, not a gendered role.
Some call it “Grandparent Slave” syndrome, where grandma (and sometimes grandpa) are increasingly forced into caregiving duties that leave them exhausted and can even affect their health.
People with dementia are often patronized and their movements restricted — like in prison, some say. Gammeloase, a retirement home in Germany does things very differently. For Germany’s Die Zeit, Anna Scheld asks whether this approach is sustainable and whether it could be replicated elsewhere.
A recent study has shown that Tina, a Neanderthal child with Down’s syndrome, lived to the age of six because her group took care of her, placing the documented origin of altruism in the Homo genus between 270,000 and 146,000 years ago. Altruism is not a right, it is a human condition, something every human heart has to conquer.
The German philosopher believed education and discipline is necessary to turn youth into independent and moral adults. As the 300th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated this year, what would Kant say about the current state of affairs? And what can be learned from his teachings?
It’s difficult to take a breath in the middle of all of the parenting chaos — but if we aren’t able to tell when happy moments are unfolding, we risk missing them altogether.
The Chinese pet market is booming, driven by young city dwellers who are increasingly reluctant to have babies. Care, food, yoga classes, strollers, specialized detectives and pet-cloning are all part of a 35 billion-euro industry.
While it may make sense from a business perspective, healthcare facilities should focus on more than just optimizing space. Hospital architecture lessons from a pandemic.
The pandemic added an extra layer of obstacles for patients with already limited access to quality attention for their sexual and reproductive health needs.
The war in Syria has transformed the place women hold in the workforce, providing opportunities previously reserved for men.
MUNICH — “To be above it all” has become Magdalena Gründl’s purpose in life. By this, she doesn’t mean to sound egotistical. The-25 year-old research assistant working at Harvard wants to understand the bigger picture. She hopes to make the world a better place while managing her life as a young academic at an Ivy […]
PARIS — Last month, I made my annual trip back to Taiwan around the Chinese New Year to see my parents. My mother, who is 86, has not being doing too badly even though she has a mild but progressive form of Alzheimer’s, diagnosed six years ago. She has continued to do her daily Qigong […]
President Donald Trump’s address to Congress marked a change in tone, but his ambitious agenda will bring conflict with lawmakers down the road.
JAKARTA — Yanti, 93, lives in a tiny room along with three other family members in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. She’s unable to move or get up so she lies on a bed that dominates the cramped space. The air is thick with the stench of stale urine. Yanti tells me she can’t pass a bowel movement. She says she’s constantly urinating. She lies on a layer of opened diapers. She grabs the flesh on my arm, which suddenly feels more chubby and elastic than ever before in her bony hand covered in thin, papery skin. Palliative care is […]
Invisible to the naked eye, the attitudes and regulations of local officials are blocking an expansion of private hospitals that most agree is much needed in China.
Already more than 7,000 beds, Zhengzhou’s ‘Super Hospital’ now has plans to expand to serve 10,000. Is this the best approach to health care in a booming China?
In a secret location in the Lebanese capital, a 60-bed hospital treats ISIS and other Islamic extremists whose backers must pay cash in advance. Enemies share doctors where medicine is a blind business, and cash is king.
Categories
“Medical Tourism,” African-Style
Every since a private insurance system was launched in Rwanda, its citizens regularly cross the Burundi border to get better, cheaper care.
Her eyes tear up when I come into the room although the word “daughter” holds no meaning for her anymore. When friends and relatives ask me “How’s your mother?,” they are not referring to the woman I used to relate to in that role, but to a whole other person behind an invisible wall. I […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch BERLIN – A growing number of Germans are now moving to retirement homes in Eastern Europe, Spain or Thailand where aged care costs substantially less thanks in large part to lower staff salaries. Die Welt has obtained figures not made public by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showing that more and […]