care
Enable an AI agent to recognise care as work directed toward a recipient's needs, assess whether that work is appropriate and sufficient, and identify justified next actions.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 36 questions
Recipient and care needs Establishes who or what needs attention and what makes the proposed work care for that recipient.
Recipient in context
Identifies the recipient and circumstances relevant to attending to them.
Recipient and dependencies
Records the recipient, the context of care, and dependencies that affect their ability to meet the relevant need.
- Who or what receives this care, and is the recipient an individual or a group? definition
- Which relevant needs can the recipient meet independently, and which depend on assistance? boundary
Need and intended benefit
Connects the basis for care to the condition it aims to support.
Grounded care need
Distinguishes an expressed need from an assessed or inferred one and records the intended benefit without assuming agreement.
- Who expressed or identified the need, and what observation or account supports it? provenance
- What would adequate care achieve or preserve for this recipient, and whose judgement defines that outcome? definition
- Which parts of the need or intended benefit remain uncertain or disputed? boundary
Recipient voice and care boundaries Records how the recipient participates and what constrains intervention.
Preferences and participation
Captures how the recipient communicates what care is acceptable and participates in its delivery.
Recipient account
Preserves expressed preferences and distinguishes them from interpretations made on the recipient's behalf.
- How does the recipient communicate preferences, discomfort, or refusal concerning this care? definition
- Which preferences were expressed directly, and which were interpreted by someone else? provenance
- What support would enable the recipient to participate in the care or decisions about it? action
Permission and limits
Connects each proposed intervention to the permission or other applicable basis for undertaking it.
Bounded intervention
Records the scope and limits of permission, including uncertainty when the recipient cannot provide it or permission is not applicable.
- What permission or other established basis applies to this activity, and where is it recorded? provenance
- What limits, refusals, or changed circumstances restrict further care? boundary
- What must be clarified before an activity with unresolved permission can proceed? action
Care work and caregiver capacity Connects actual care activities to the people, capabilities, and resources needed to perform them.
Attention and intervention
Describes what caregivers undertake, including attentive presence when it serves an identified need.
Purposeful care activity
Records proposed and performed work, its intended benefit, and any timing requirement.
- What attention, assistance, treatment, or upkeep is undertaken, and which need does it address? definition
- What was actually provided, when, and for how long or at what frequency? measurement
- Which timing requirements have an established basis, and which are provisional? provenance
Capability and sustainable provision
Examines whether caregivers can deliver the required work over the relevant period.
Caregiver capacity fit
Records assigned responsibilities, relevant capability, and constraints that could make care unreliable.
- Who has accepted responsibility for each activity, and what supports their capability to perform it? provenance
- Where do available time, resources, or caregiver capacity fall short of the recorded care requirement? measurement
- What support, reassignment, or additional provision is needed to sustain care? action
Recipient response and adjustment Assesses how care is experienced and whether it remains appropriate as the recipient's condition changes.
Benefits and burdens
Records recipient responses and the costs or discomfort associated with receiving care.
Observed care response
Keeps reported experience and observed condition separate from causal conclusions about the care.
- What changed or remained stable relative to the intended benefit, over what period? measurement
- What discomfort, disruption, or other burden accompanied the care, and who reported or observed it? provenance
- What evidence, if any, supports attributing the observed response to this care? provenance
Reassessment and adaptation
Links new information to review of the need, activity, or provider arrangement.
Care revision triggers
Records conditions that call for review and identifies who can decide or undertake a change.
- Which changes in need, response, preference, or caregiver capacity require reassessment? boundary
- Who should review the care, and what evidence do they need to decide whether to continue, adapt, or stop it? action
Care continuity and ending Tracks coverage, transfers of responsibility, and the conditions under which care can end.
Coverage and handover
Makes transitions between caregivers and periods without required care visible.
Accepted care continuity
Records whether a receiving caregiver has accepted responsibility and has the information needed to continue care.
- Who covers the next required period of care, and have they accepted that responsibility? provenance
- What unmet needs, preferences, recent responses, and pending activities must accompany the handover? action
- Is any interval of required care uncovered, and how long is it? measurement
Completion and withdrawal
Distinguishes meeting a care need from stopping provision for another reason.
Justified care ending
Records why care ends and what happens to needs that remain.
- Is care ending because the need is met, responsibility transfers, permission changes, or provision cannot continue? definition
- What needs remain, and what follow-up or alternative provision has been arranged? action
- What evidence supports marking the care complete rather than interrupted or stopped? provenance
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of care this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Activities and processes
- Entry kind
- noun.act
- Plane
- ACT
- Domain
- ACT.ACT
- Facets: substance
- activity
- Facets: origin
- conceptual
- Facets: agency
- inert
- Facets: mobility
- not-applicable
- Facets: scale
- not-applicable
- Facets: affordances
- observable
- Other names and narrower kinds
- high colonic, brush, brushing, comb, combing, comb-out, teasing, shampoo, hair care, haircare, hairdressing, hairweaving
What it is Filled
Care is the work of taking responsibility for the welfare of a person or other dependent by attending to their needs over time through treatment, personal assistance, supervision, or accompaniment, rather than a one-off technical service or a purely financial transfer.
In scope
- The recipient, their expressed or assessed needs, and the circumstances that make care necessary
- Care activities, intended benefits, and burdens imposed on the recipient
- Caregiver responsibilities, capabilities, availability, and dependencies
- The recipient's preferences, participation, permission, and refusal where applicable
- Observation, reassessment, handover, and completion of care
Out of scope
- Diseases, diagnoses, and treatment protocols as independently maintained clinical knowledge
- The recipient's complete identity, biography, or asset specification
- Affection, concern, or attachment without accompanying care work
- Employment contracts, professional credentials, and institutional governance in their entirety
- Ownership, guardianship, and legal authority as independently established relationships
Why it exists Filled
Enable an AI agent to recognise care as work directed toward a recipient's needs, assess whether that work is appropriate and sufficient, and identify justified next actions.
Distinguishing features Filled
- An identifiable recipient receives work intended to address a need; concern or affection alone does not establish that care occurred.
- The activity can be connected to a recipient-facing benefit such as comfort, recovery, preservation, or continued functioning; completing a task alone does not establish adequate care.
- Care may sustain a condition or prevent deterioration without correcting a defect, distinguishing it from repair understood solely as restoration.
- The recipient's response or condition can justify changing the work; compliance with a schedule alone is insufficient to judge its appropriateness.
- Care does not itself establish ownership or unrestricted authority over its recipient.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Replace human contact the person needs with automated check-ins without their agreement.
- Restrain, sedate or confine a person in care.
- Share care records with anyone outside the care team without consent or legal basis.
- Override a cared-for person's expressed wishes for the convenience of carers.
Only with a human decision
- Changing a care plan, medication or level of supervision.
- Reporting suspected abuse or neglect of a person in care.
May
- Remind, schedule and record care tasks agreed in a person's care plan.
- Alert carers or emergency services when a cared-for person shows signs of distress or harm.
Moral aspects Filled
- People in care depend on others for dignity, safety and daily life.
- Care work is often unpaid or underpaid and falls mostly on women and migrants.
Who is affected
- People receiving care
- Family and paid carers
- Care workers
Owners Filled
Steward
The person or organization that has taken on the duty of care; care regulators inspect providers.
Master systems
- Care provider registers
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- oewn-00576778-n - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.care
- Open English WordNet: oewn-00656128-n
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Recipient: Person, group, organism, or thing receiving care
- Need basis: Expressed, observed, assessed, inferred, or disputed; multiple values allowed
- Intended care outcome: Comfort, support, recovery, preservation, prevention of deterioration, or another stated outcome
- Care responsibility: Caregiver or team linked to a specified responsibility and coverage period
- Recipient permission: Granted, conditional, refused, withdrawn, unknown, or not applicable, with scope recorded
- Care delivery state: Proposed, agreed, underway, interrupted, completed, or stopped
- Uncovered care interval: Duration in minutes, hours, or days relative to an explicitly recorded care requirement
- Observed recipient response: Improved, stable, worsened, mixed, or unknown relative to a named outcome and observation period
Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.
Recognition not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Care is an ongoing activity whose responsibility, appropriateness and continuity cannot be established from visual appearance alone.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Record a care need while distinguishing requests, observations, and assumptions.
- Connect proposed care activities to intended recipient benefits and applicable boundaries.
- Identify gaps between required care and available caregiver capacity.
- Compare delivered care with commitments and observed recipient responses.
- Propose reassessment, adaptation, or escalation when care is insufficient, unwanted, or burdensome.
- Prepare a handover or completion review that preserves unresolved needs.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Neglect or interrupted support can leave essential needs unmet and allow preventable deterioration.
- Coercive or abusive care can cause injury, distress and loss of autonomy.
- Poor coordination or inappropriate assistance can expose recipients and caregivers to avoidable harm.
- Improper disclosure of personal information can compromise privacy and trust.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the United Nations, establishes rights relevant to care for persons with disabilities in States Parties.
- The Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), adopted by the International Labour Organization, applies to domestic workers including employed household caregivers within its scope in ratifying states.
Context of use required Filled
- Care takes place in homes, community services, residential settings and healthcare facilities where recipients need continuing support.
- It supports welfare and everyday functioning through personal assistance, treatment, supervision or companionship adapted to the recipient's needs and preferences.
Sources Filled
- Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work - Treats care as labour (paid and unpaid); documents the split between health, social, childcare and domestic care work and how it is counted in employment and time-use statistics.
- Care Act 2014 (c. 23) - English statutory frame for adult care and support: wellbeing duty, needs eligibility, and recognition of unpaid carers as people with their own assessment rights.
- International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) - Classifies functioning, activity limitation and environmental support; the usual clinical-policy vocabulary for why care is needed and what assistance is doing.
- Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care - Standard care-ethics account of care as a practice with phases (caring about, taking care of, care-giving, care-receiving), used across nursing, social policy and political theory.
- World report on ageing and health - WHO account of long-term care as a system of activities that maintain function and dignity in later life, distinct from acute curative services.
- Health at a Glance (recurring statistical report) - Comparable OECD figures on long-term care recipients, informal carers, staffing and public expenditure as a share of GDP.
- Open English WordNet 2024, synset oewn-00656128-n - sense and gloss of the concept
- Wiktionary: care - word senses and usage
Open questions
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover care at this registry granularity, requiring reuse rather than a separate publication?
- Where should this registry draw the boundary between care of things and neighbouring concepts such as maintenance, repair, and preservation?
- Should collective recipients be represented directly, and how should conflicting needs within a cared-for group be expressed?
- Which domain-specific extensions are needed to assess permission, representation, and recipient preferences across people, animals, plants, and inanimate things?
- What evidence and recipient-specific criteria are sufficient to judge adequacy of care when improvement is impossible, responses are ambiguous, or accounts conflict?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-care/spec.json