Robot Therapy Program for Patients with Dementia: Its Framework and Effectiveness

Abstract

Robot therapy uses humanoid and animal-like robots. The robot therapy for older adults is expected to affect the therapeutic goals, including physical condition, cognitive function, and provide joy. By interaction with humanoid or animal-like robot, the older adults who are not physically active may have the improvement of their physical condition, such as hugging, stroking, talking with them, and participating in any activity involving the robot. The typical examples show that animal therapy has almost the same effectiveness as robot therapy among older people. It is clarified that robot therapy can be expected to have a healing effect on patients, improve motivation for activity, and increase the amount of activity, like animal therapy. Furthermore, it was essential to consider the intermediary role of nurses for connecting the robot and older adults and their role, even if the robot is not sophisticated enough to be useful as a humanoid nurse robot for rehabilitation and dialogue with older adults. Thus, robot therapy could be considered another important intervention in the challenging health and innovative care practices needed in the care of older persons. This chapter explains the robot therapy program for patients with dementia from the viewpoint of its framework and effectiveness.