Problem Scenario

The current situation concerning healthcare for people with dementia is not optimal and much can be improved. This section dives into the underlying problems that a person with dementia faces themselves as well as how their environment handles issues concerning budget, time and attention.

Introduction

Depending on the severity of their condition, people with dementia have limited autonomy compared to their lives before the disease. This is also influenced by their living situation. They may live in care homes or dementia centres, where staff has limited time available to spend on each individual person.
Autonomy is one of the key psychological needs according to the self-determination theory, describing how feeling fulfilled is influenced by how much a person feels in control of their own actions. (Koestner, R. & Loesier G.F. (2002), p 115) 

For people with dementia, this may become problematic. Symptoms of their condition vary but can include memory loss, concentration problems, struggling to participate in conversation, and being confused about time and place. This poses issues for their autonomy. They may become distracted or lost in familiar spaces. There is little time for personal guidance and fenced exploration, as residents need to be watched by staff members to make sure they are safe. Many care homes are fenced off and don't allow their residents to wander off beyond their allowed spaces. But even then, a person with dementia might get confused and lost, having trouble retracing their steps or finding their way in a seemingly unfamiliar environment. Sometimes the staff is able to join in on the spontaneous activity, but they can't be there 24/7 for every single resident. 

A daily task, like walking toward the common room or dining hall might seem like something that people with dementia might get used to, but this still poses problems. Getting to engrain certain daily activities in residents is also a struggle in the daily lives of care workers and staff as they try to keep residents occupied with activities, Such activities are beneficial to people with dementia as it makes them feel like they are capable of performing tasks, giving them purpose and sparking the feeling of enjoyment and fulfilment. 

One could propose to hire more staff members to ensure that every person in the care home gets the chance to perform daily leisurely activities at least semi-autonomously. But limited funding makes this solution hard to implement. To mitigate the issues posed by the aforementioned solution, our work explores the options of a robotic aide for people with dementia.

Problem Scenario

Cornelia lives in a care home. She is often frustrated with the lack of activities he can undertake by herself. Although she realises that she has early-stage dementia, and doing activities without supervision could become problematic for her, she feels too capable and proud to truly enjoy the group activities that are organized in the care home. Furthermore, she is an introverted person, and does not love group activities. Her favourite activity is going for a walk, but she needs to make sure that Stefan, who is the activity coordinator, has time to go on a walk with her. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen as often as she would like, resulting in Cornelia often sulking the day away in his room.

Design Scenario

Cornelia decides that she wants to go take a walk after lunchtime. She finds Stefan, the activity coordinator, and asks him if she can go on a walk. Stefan then gets WAF, a dog-like robot. He tells Cornelia that she can take WAF for a walk, and Cornelia gladly accepts. Together with Stefan, she plans a route around the care home. Stefan puts a wristband on Cornelia and explains to her that she can use it to call for help and that this will help WAF to stay close to her. Then, the two are off. Whenever Cornelia gets distracted and deviates too much from the route, the wristband vibrates, redirecting her to follow the guidance of the WAF. Upon returning back to the common room, Cornelia feels a sense of accomplishment and is more in control of her own life.