Robotic Pets for Seniors: Creative Additions to Senior Care Facilities

by Julia Kicinski

When stocking your senior care facility with the latest aids for your residents, a supply of robotic pets probably isn't the first item that comes to mind. However, these furry friends have been popular among seniors who love to cuddle a purring animatronic cat or stroke the ear of a robot puppy to cue it to cock its head. Recent studies have indicated that animatronic pets—robotic animals with realistic actions such as battery-operated breathing or heartbeats—can improve senior care, particularly in memory care facilities.

What Are Animatronic Pets?

Like stuffed animals, animatronic pets are designed with soft fur that makes them pleasant to cuddle and touch, but they have the added feature of light and sound sensors to help them simulate the actions of their live animal counterparts. For example, some robotic puppies are programmed to wag their tails or nuzzle into your hand when you pet them. Similarly, robotic cats might start purring and even fall asleep when stroked. Importantly, these animations are not intended to deceive seniors into believing that the pets are living animals, but rather to provide them with an interactive object that can offer a level of comfort and security. The lifelike features give seniors the joy of having a pet without the added responsibilities of feeding, cleaning, and paying vet bills.

Researchers have been investigating the benefits of robotic pets in senior care for many years. One of the earliest animatronic pets is Japan's robotic baby harp seal, PARO, introduced in 2004. Interestingly, interacting with robotic pets such as PARO has been reported to reduce pain in some older adults, which can improve comfort and decrease the need for pain medications. Many senior care facilities are finding that, aside from merely providing entertainment, animatronic pets can offer a variety of physical and mental benefits to residents.

What Are the Benefits?

Although they recognize that these "pets" are not alive, many seniors find that animatronic companions provide a satisfactory alternative to pets they can no longer own. Studies have connected the positive emotional responses to robotic animals with a plethora of mental benefits, some of which are highlighted below.

Memory Recall

Robotic pets can be used as a form of reminiscence therapy, a treatment that prompts conversation about items like personal mementos. Many memory care facilities have found that shadow boxes filled with photos and small personal objects can help elicit specific memories. In addition to prompting residents to recall people and events from the past, memory boxes placed outside patient rooms have also been proven to aid in wayfinding and room recognition. Robotic pets build on this strategy by acting as a sensory object to influence memory recall. Seeing, hearing, and touching an animatronic cat or dog can bring back warm memories of pets that seniors may have had as a child or young adult. Of course, it's important to know your residents well, as these interactions may also evoke recollections of bad experiences with animals in the past and negatively impact their present health.

Reduced Loneliness

You may notice that a number of seniors in your care are prone to loneliness, which isn't unusual. Surveys have reported a large portion of adults as feeling lonely, with adults 50 or older facing a greater likelihood for health issues such as dementia and heart disease when they feel socially isolated or lonely. Offering regular activities can encourage social interaction, which often helps give seniors a better sense of purpose and reduce feelings of isolation. Healthcaresigns.com offers a variety of activity boards that can be used to display and advertise any announcements or planned activities for residents, such as concerts, games, or the arrival of a new community animatronic pet.

In some cases, robotic pets can offer a more satisfactory solution for loneliness than a bustling social life can provide. The difficulty with loneliness is that the feeling isn't always directly related to the amount of social interaction one is having. However, after beginning a program that delivers animatronic pets to seniors, the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) found a significant (75%) decrease in loneliness among recipients of their robotic pets. Providing a companion to cuddle and interact with can offer a positive addition to a senior's daily routine.

Mental Stimulation

Robotic pets can offer mental stimulation that helps improve communication avenues among seniors in much the same way that other initiatives such as reality orientation boards aid in daily awareness. Reality orientation boards showcase information such as the current date, weather, and holidays to encourage seniors to participate in regular mental exercises to stay aware of their surroundings.

On the surface, having a robotic animal may not appear particularly mentally stimulating. However, studies have shown that many dementia patients who own robotic cats show slight amounts of mental improvement because they like to talk to their pets. While they may not speak to their pets in conventional sentences, the regular interaction can increase attention span, as well as conversational interest and ability. The positive effects of possessing a robotic pet will vary depending on the individual, but having this opportunity to engage with an object they genuinely enjoy can make significant improvements on overall mood.

Improved Mental Health

Factors like dark moods, loneliness, and fading memory can all have negative effects on seniors' mental health, in some cases inducing mental disorders like depression and anxiety. However, multiple studies have reported a marked improvement in the mental health of seniors who receive animatronic pets, largely because of the way interaction with them targets the root causes of many mental health issues. Nurturing robotic pets can help seniors feel useful in a period of life where they have transitioned from caring for others to having others care for them.

In some cases, however, residents can display an adverse response to robotic pets. For patients who are easily confused, the possibility of losing the pet may be a source of increased anxiety. Similarly, somebody with a lifelong fear of animals might have a very negative reaction to even a robotic animal. The key to gauging whether this initiative might benefit seniors in your care is to know them well enough to predict whether the pet is something they might like or dislike.

What Is the Appeal?

Some caregivers may find the idea of offering robotic animals to seniors as an unlikely therapy option, but the observed responses in seniors indicate that animatronic pets can be quite beneficial. Part of the appeal in providing these pets is that they can offer a simple, affordable complement to the medical care seniors are receiving.

Affordability

The costs of robotic pets have decreased significantly since the first animatronic animals that were introduced. As medical devices, animatronic animals like PARO the robotic seal can cost thousands of dollars. However, as less complex toys, socially interactive robotic pets can now be obtained for the much more affordable price of several hundred dollars or less. And in contrast to owning and caring for a live animal, buying a robotic pet is a one-time payment other than the need to occasionally change the batteries. The low cost also means that it can be practical for seniors to have their own individual pets rather than sharing them with others in the facility, which raises concerns about hygiene.

Simple Care

For people who have loved pets all their lives, the idea of living without one can be very depressing, but owning a live animal in a senior care facility is usually very impractical. Even for independent seniors, caring regularly for a pet can be quite challenging. Animatronic pets offer a unique solution by providing lovable animals that won't be affected by lack of care. Seniors can enjoy grooming and playing with their animatronic pets without the concern that they may forget or be unable to care for them one day.

Constant Companionship

The wonderful thing about animatronic pets is that they are always happy to provide companionship to their owners, no matter what time of the day or night. Even the most patient live animals seek out alone time! Robotic pets provide an excellent backup option for seniors who love constant companionship or the ready option to stroke the soft fur of a cat or puppy. These pets can become such a regular and joyful part of a senior's life that some families report personal attachments to the animals as well.

Although many of the seniors who have animatronic pets appear aware that they're not live animals, some do have a hard time understanding the difference. This raises the question of whether providing a robotic companion is ethical if a patient is deceived and believes that it is a live pet. Most providers seem to agree, however, that the best approach is to introduce the animal as a robotic pet and avoid referring to the pet as a live animal.

Initiatives Improving Senior Care

Technological advances can be instrumental in improving senior care, especially in memory care facilities. Animatronic pets are far from the only initiatives that researchers and healthcare providers have been beneficially implementing. Some healthcare facilities even take the idea of a shadow box and convert it into a more technological format, using a tablet display to showcase memory-provoking images.

Regardless of what you find is most helpful for the seniors in your care, staying on top of the latest studies and initiatives can provide excellent ideas for maintaining the highest quality care for your patients. And if that means you get to spread the joy of robotic pets to seniors in your facility, all the better!