Today, most people can expect to live into their seventies and beyond. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, within the next 15 years, the world will have close to a billion people over the age of 65, and for the first time in human history, people aged 65 and over will outnumber children under age 5 sometime before 2020. Many of these people will have physical impairments -- such as loss of hearing, eyesight, mobility, dementia or Alzheimer's -- and need an increasing amount of care. My own mother, Joyce, is 87 years old and lives at home with me and my wife. She is able to look after herself but suffers from severe short-term memory loss, although she has yet to be diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition.