“The change was phenomenal”: The power and positivity of RoboPets for people with dementia
How do you use technology to support people with dementia? Rachael Byrne from West Northamptonshire Council gives an insight into the local stories that have showed her the power of one answer: RoboPets…
I’m one of the project leads for the Local Area Partnerships in West Northamptonshire, working at community level to address health inequalities. Because we are working at that level, we can find lots of different solutions to solve problems for individuals.
We looked at our data and insight reports for our areas and identified our priorities. The areas I cover are in the rural south and they have a very high demographic of older people.
I had a conversation with Pedro Santos from West Northamptonshire Council’s assistive technology team and he told me about RoboPets. I've always been an animal lover, so I know how much benefit you can get from a pet. It's the nurturing element that can be really important to someone.
As we go into cognitive decline, we still have an innate nurturing instinct in us. As the other things decline, that remains.
So I looked into it and I was blown away. I knew we had to run it as a pilot project to see how helpful it could be for the older people in our communities. They’ve had an amazing response to these pets and it’s one particular story that demonstrates the positive impact they can have.
When I met Dorothy*, she was receiving end of life care in her care home. She mostly slept. She sat in a chair and rarely moved or spoke. Dorothy’s daughter was there with her and she told me Dorothy used to have a cat.
So I showed Dorothy one of our RoboPet cats. She started stroking it and her daughter couldn’t believe, having become so used to Dorothy not interacting with anyone or anything.
Dorothy’s daughter said to her, “shall we keep it? shall we look after it?“ And she said, “Yes”.
One month later, I went back to the care home and the staff told me how phenomenal the change had been in Dorothy. She’d previously been asleep most of the time but now she’s awake and alert, she’s focused on her cat and she talks about it all the time. It’s almost like it's given her something to live for.
Dorothy had named the cat Annabelle. Now she talks to her, she'll let the other residents hold her and she talks to them about her. She’ll communicate with Annabelle as well, telling her that she loves her and about what a good girl she's been. Then she will communicate with the staff to say Annabelle has been a really good girl today and so on.
One of the reasons these cats work so well is that, for example, Dorothy is stroking the cat constantly, so she’s started to improve her dexterity. Whereas before, she was having to be hoisted up, she can now use a walking frame. Before, she was having to be fed because she couldn't hold things, she's now feeding herself. She can take her medication without the staff having to do it for her.
The care home are now getting a physio in to see if Dorothy can work with them to walk without the frame. This was someone who was receiving end of life care. I’ve got a job to do but I was really moved by this story. It got to me emotionally - even writing this now I can picture Dorothy’s face and the change in her, how much more alert she was from one month to the next.
We have 17 of these cats that have gone to dementia patients around West Northamptonshire, so this is just one story among many.
Constance* was also given a RoboPet cat who she named Doris. When I was talking to Constance, her carer told me how helpful Doris was, not just for Constance but for her too. Because when she was cleaning around the house, she would hear Constance talking to her cat and it meant she knew she was okay.
She would be able to hear Constance laughing and Doris meowing away, and it meant she didn’t have to worry while she was changing the beds or something like that.
When I’m out visiting different people in communities and I see the effect these RoboPets have had on some people’s lives, it means I know the impact they could have on the next person I meet in Dorothy or Constance’s situation. That’s the best feeling.
*Names have been changed (but not the cat’s – she’s definitely called Annabelle)
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