Preventing isolation of people with dementia: Effectiveness and challenges of communication robots
H. Kase (Convener)
Full text PDF 
( Download count: 43)
AbstractParticipants: R. Yamazaki-Skov (Denmark), X. Liu (China), J. Yang (Japan), R. Makino (Japan), M. Furukawa (Japan). ISSUE Social isolation and loneliness among older adults is a growing public health and public policy concern, made even more apparent by the COVID-19 pandemic. Social isolation and loneliness shorten older adults’ lives, and damage their mental and physical health and quality of life. (WHO, 2021). A review conducted in 2015 indicated that social isolation and loneliness were associated with a 29% and 26% increased likelihood of mortality. (Holt-Lunstad et. al). Especially, people with dementia (PWD) intend to avoid talking to people around them due to their declining cognitive function. Preventing social isolation and loneliness in people with dementia can not only increase their own wellbeing but also reduce social care costs. A key concept in dementia care is to help PWD maintain communication and keep connections with their families, caregivers, and environment. However, with the increasing number of older adults living alone and the shortage of caregivers, this has become difficult. Therefore, several communication robots have been developed to deal with this problem, and recently it has been reported that they are effective by using the reminiscence methods. Reminiscence methods are known to be effective in maintaining the communication skills of people with dementia and preventing the occurrence of behavioral and phycological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as wandering, shouting, and problematic behavior. This symposium aims to discuss how to develop easily accessible communication robots that can prevent isolation and loneliness for people with disabilities. It is believed that the shortest way to popularize communication robots among people is to improve commercially available robots with AI models. The goal of this symposium is to clarify what problems exist and what attempts are being made to overcome them.Keywords: communication robot, Woz model, AI, people with dementia
H. Kase (Convener) (2024). Preventing isolation of people with dementia: Effectiveness and challenges of communication robots. Gerontechnology, 23(2), 1-1
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2024.23.s.1038.1.sp