Fluffy robot seals comfort dementia patients in nursing homes

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Sorry, this video has expired Video: Study investigates robot seal pups for dementia sufferers (ABC News)

The idea of giving dementia patients fluffy pet robots in place of medication may seem a little unconventional but it could be the way of the future.

Queensland researchers have been granted more than $1 million to begin the world's biggest study into the effects of animal-like robots on dementia patients.

The PARO robot, a 2.7kg soft, fluffy baby harp seal, has showed promising results - calming agitated and distressed patients during a small pilot study last year.

Each seal can learn its own name, has unique facial features and can show emotions such as surprise, happiness and anger.

Professor Wendy Moyle from Griffith University says with the number of dementia patients expected to double in the next 20 years, finding new treatments is critical.

"In 2009-2010, $19 million was spent on pharmaceuticals to reduce agitation behaviour in people with dementia living in nursing homes," she said.

"These pharmaceuticals often have quite negative side effects. People can fall, they can get further confusion, they can get very sedated and that can cause other problems for them.

"The robotic animal may actually have a chance to reduce that pharmaceutical use."

Animals are very good for human beings, but some people cannot own animals and also some places do not allow animals. Professor Takanori Shibata

PARO is the brain child of Japanese engineer Professor Takanori Shibata from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

He says he wanted to mimic the positive effects of animal therapy on patients without the downfalls of using real animals.

"Animals are very good for human beings, but some people cannot own animals and also some places do not allow animals. Managing animals also costs a lot so I developed an animal-type robot," he said.

Professor Shibata trialled several different types of robot animals before settling on the harp seal pup after a trip to Canada.

"I thought what kind of shape would be good for animal-type robot?" he said.

"I thought the shape of the robot should be a big egg shape and also the robot should have very soft body, warm body temperature and a nice texture with fur and I thought a baby seal is a very attractive shape for that purpose."

Baby seals fare better than dogs and cats

Professor Shibata first trialled the more common cat and dog robot prototypes against the seals.

"Because they [the patients] compare the robot with images of real dogs or real cats and they are disappointed because they expect too much," he said.

"But in the case of a seal, people do not know the baby seal very much, so in the beginning people did not have high expectations, so people gradually increased the value of the seal robot."

Professor Moyle says the technology could help reduce the workload on therapeutic animals, who can become sick and stressed working in nursing homes.

"They often get overfed and can get very stressed because several residents want them all at once," she said.

"Often dogs have to go on stress leave, we've heard cases of dogs having to go off on three out of 12 months on stress leave."

Professor Moyle says the $6,000 robot also has some added advantages including no risk of bites or expensive vet bills.

"They are also hygienic, they don't need to be bathed, we do send the furs off to Japan actually to be bathed, but only once a year," she said.

We had people who hadn't communicated for a couple of years start actually communicating through the use of the PARO. Professor Wendy Moyle

Patients have so far responded well to the robots, according to Professor Moyle.

"We found that it reduced agitation and anxiety and improved quality of life and pleasure in people with mid to late stage dementia," she said.

"We had people who hadn't communicated for a couple of years start actually communicating through the use of the PARO; so very exciting results from that small pilot.

"We do tell them that it's a robot, it has different functions, it does things but some people do tend to think of it as a real life animal."

Fairview Retirement Village carer Chris Byrne says dementia patients can become more agitated in the evening after sunset because they think it is time to go home.

"It's just like me or you, we have good moods, bad moods but at times with dementia it can be a lot more erratic. That's something we have noticed with these [PARO robots] it can give people some down time when they can sit down and relax and reduce that agitation," he said.

"I've seen people laughing, someone was trying to give it a drink before, talking to it and snuggling up with it, all sorts, it's been very good."

Thirty residential aged care facilities and 380 people with dementia will be involved in the trial starting next year.

Residents will be randomly assigned to be either given a normal stuffed toy, the PARO robot or usual care.

There is no known prevention or cure for most forms of dementia.

Topics: alzheimers-and-dementia, diseases-and-disorders, health, medical-research, science-and-technology, robots-and-artificial-intelligence, qld, australia

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