Personas

In this section, we present our personas. We have made three personas of people with dementia and one persona for an activity coordinator. 

Cornelia

Age: 83
Residence: Care home in Delft
Diagnosis: Early-stage dementia

Biography:
Cornelia has mid-stage dementia. She lives in an overcrowded care home in Delft. She does not need constant care. She is a very stubborn person and does not want to be taken care of constantly. She is not a very social person, she used to read a lot before her diagnosis. She is surprisingly active and likes going on walks. She also has a passion for classical music. She strongly dislikes group activities, as the loud noises of people scare her. The one thing she dislikes more than group activities is doctor/nurse visits. This stems from her introversion and stubbornness: she believes she knows better than the doctor.

Cornelia used to work as an accountant for a small firm. Her husband worked at the same firm. After he passed away at a young age, she retired early at 58. She spent most of her early retirement reading, walking her dog, listening to music, and going to orchestra concerts with her only son. who was not always available. She started showing signs of dementia at age 76, and at age 81 she was moved to the care home. She only has some experience with technology. She has used computers, devices, and a basic smartphone. She does not necessarily distrust technology. She does however have issues reading small text and speaking. 

Scenario without Technology:
Like most residents in the care home, Cornelia often gets lost when walking alone. Sometimes, Stefan walks with her, but she is not a big fan of this. She does not dislike Stefan, but the pressure of someone walking with her is too much for her. 

Scenario with Technology:
Cornelia loves alone time and pets, so when Stefan, the activity coordinator, suggested going on a walk with a robot dog, she was very excited. Stefan gave her a shorter walk to start off with. When Cornelia saw the robot for the first time, she was a bit taken aback. However, when she got close, the robot started wagging its tail and slowly driving toward her. As the robot was quite small, Cornelia couldn't reach it. Stefan picked it up and asked Cornelia if she wanted to pet it. Cornelia of course took this opportunity. After petting and getting familiar with the robot, Cornelia started her walk. Stefan told her to walk towards her room with the robot, as he entered that path into the system. Cornelia found the walk pleasant, the experience felt very familiar. When Cornelia took a wrong turn, however, the robot started barking. Cornelia did notice this but kept going. The robot then made a sad howling sound, to which Cornelia reacted. She went back towards the bot, and the bot showed excitement by wagging its tail and moving around. They continued on the path towards Cornelia's room.

Constantijn

Age: 77
Residence: Care home in Deventer
Diagnosis: Early- to mid-stage dementia

Biography:
Constantijn has early- to mid-stage dementia. He used to be a stage magician and is a very social person. He loves being the centre of attention, but his care home is understaffed, so during group activities, he cannot always get the attention he needs. He spends most of his time in the communal living room, but he finds it hard to talk about his hobbies with the other residents, as they're not always responsive. The activity he enjoys the most is the monthly talent show, he is always busy preparing his next magic trick. He has tried out some of the solo activities the home has to offer, like the library and solitaire, but he doesn't enjoy them as much. He does not have much experience with technology. He has used radios and televisions, but not to an extent to which he is super familiar with them. He also video calls with family sometimes, which is set up by his care home. Constantijn had a cat in the past, he is not a big fan of dogs. 

Scenario without Technology:
Constantijn loves talking to the activity coordinators in his home. Whenever they go on a walk with him, he enjoys the chats and company. The main issue for him is the fact that they can't do this often. The activity coordinators are busy organizing other activities and doing one-on-one activities with other residents. 

Scenario with Technology:
Constantijn was sceptical about the robot. He generally doesn't enjoy solo activities, and this robot was clearly not a person. He also didn't have any emotional connection to dogs to draw him in. He reluctantly decided to still go through with the activity, because he is willing to try out new things. His activity coordinator decided to have him walk in a circle, from the first living room to the second, to the third, and back to this one. At first, Constantijn just followed the dog. This was not a super enjoyable experience for him. The emotional cues, like wagging the tail or acting sad or excited, did not affect him much. However, in the hallways, he met one of his friends. They chatted for a while, and Constantijn explained his next magic trick. Constantijn was able to say hi to people he did not see often and often stopped to have a quick chat. 

Marcus

Age: 83
Residence: Care home in Haarlem
Diagnosis: Early-stage dementia

Biography:
Marcus is 83 and has early-stage dementia, until recently he lived in his own home in Haarlem. Twice per week, a nurse came to visit. He recently moved to a large and particularly overcrowded care home. When the nurse or his family isn't there, he gets quite lonely. He used to like going to the museum and other places with his wife, but he is no longer able to do those activities as he is scared of having an accident. He has lasting injuries from his past occupation as a construction worker, so he has difficulties with physical activity. He can't walk for longer periods of time without a walker. Like many people his age, he has a strong dislike of technology. Whenever he does use technology, he has issues with pressing buttons, as his fingers are not very precise. He has no strong connection to dogs or other pets, but he also does not dislike them.

Scenario without Technology:
The house Marcus lives in does not have many activity coordinators. He has attended a group activity, but he did not have much fun, as the coordinators were not able to give him personal attention.

Scenario with Technology
When the activity coordinators give Marcus the dog, he is sceptical, as he does not like technology or walking. He decides to try the activity anyways, but he does not like it when the robot asks him to walk a different way. Through the fact that it does this in a way that makes it seem like a real dog, he is less bothered by it than he thought he would be. The activity coordinator picked the path, but she did not know much about Marcus' disability as he is new to the home. Marcus' legs hurt too much halfway through the picked path, and he decides to sit down on his walker. The robot waits for him. He continues walking after a few minutes, but the pain is too much for him. He trembles and falls over, which is noticed by the robot. The robot starts making sounds and sends an alert to the nearby nurses, who rush to the place where he fell. He is helped up and guided back to his room. He will probably not want to try walking with the dog again.

Stefan

Age: 34
Occupation: Activity Coordinator at a care home in Delft

Biography:
Stefan is an activity coordinator and nurse at a care home in Delft. He organizes both group and individual activities. He is the only activity coordinator in the house, as the other nurses focus on their role as a caretaker. This means he is always very busy. He is however still very happy with his job, as he gets a lot of enjoyment out of helping others. During group activities, he finds it hard to split his attention, as some people require more assistance than others. He has similar issues with individual activities. Activities that require a lot of attention are simply not possible, as he is the only coordinator at the house. He can provide activities that require some setup time but don't require much attention afterwards. He is committed to setting up individual activities alongside group activities, as some of the residents, like Cornelia, don't feel comfortable in the group setting.

Scenario without Technology:
If Stefan were to describe his work in one word, it would be busy. As much as he would love to go on long walks with all residents, he simply does not have the time. The time it takes to go on an individual walks is rarely worth it, as this can only help a single person, instead of a whole group.

Scenario with Technology:
Stefan has set up the robot dog for several people now. He knows the residents quite well, so he's able to think about what they need. For some residents, he sets up longer paths, for some just a short one. He occasionally walks the dog with residents in a wheelchair, though this is more time consuming than just setting things up. He can also set the path up based on where the resident needs to go. For some residents in later stages of dementia, setting up the same, familiar, path every time is beneficial, so that they don't get as disoriented. Some residents enjoy the guided exploration or like going through areas with a lot of other residents so that they can stop to say hi and show off the dog.