Hello, is Someone There? A Case Study for Using a Social Robot in Dementia Care

Social Robotics is becoming more relevant for the healthcare sector as an increasing amount of research and development is invested by researchers and practice. One research area where additional research would help the acceptation and adoption of social robots is intramural care where people with dementia live. The current body of knowledge on this topic can be described as nascent. In this study, we add to the body of knowledge regarding the design and enactment of social robots like the one used in this study, the Tessa robot, with the goal to improve acceptation and adoption of social robots in dementia care. To do so, we conducted a case study at a healthcare organization, featuring semi-structured interviews, observations and talking mats. During this case study, an experiment was carried out in which a Tessa robot was used in intramural care with three clients suffering from dementia. The most important finding of this study is that for the robot to be accepted and effective it must be implemented properly in the existing healthcare processes, otherwise it might serve as a companion, but will not relieve the workload of healthcare workers