Grant: Project Grant

The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on long existing challenges in long-term care (LTC). Since then, there are mounting concerns about how to address the increasing demands for LTC services, staff shortage/burnout, and concerns about LTC residents' wellbeing. To date, aside from anecdotal stories and random news articles, the scientific knowledge available on innovations that are emerging that can help mitigate these challenges is limited. We don't know what new technologies can work in this environment to help health care workers and support the care that residents receive. But what we know is that the current system is at its maximum capacity in terms of ability to cater for the needs of an increasing number of older people on the waitlists for LTC. And those who have been lucky enough to land a bed in one of the LTC homes often manifest outcomes such as loneliness, agitation, depression, and reduced quality of life. These outcomes are difficult to manage and add pressure on an already exhausted and limited number of staff, which impact their ability to meet the needs of these residents and provide them with optimal care. With 45,000 persons on the waitlist for a LTC bed in Ontario and an estimated $1.8 billion dollars necessary to adequately staff the LTC sector, we need to think outside the box and look for innovative solutions that can be leveraged to mitigate these challenges. We propose a project that investigates social robots that autonomously interact with residents and can act as companions in their care. Specifically, we evaluate their feasibility and acceptability to residents, care partners, and staff; and 2) Measure their impacts on residents' social engagement, agitation, depression, and reduced quality of life. An online web portal will be developed to share the knowledge and findings from this project with the public and other LTC homes with the goal of facilitating the diffusion of best practices and lessons learned.