Doggie Robots Just The Thing To Relieve Lonliness?!

I recently wrote about dog nursing homes and here is another dog story. A Saint Louis University study suggests that a robotic dog works equally as well as a real dog in alleviating loneliness and causing nursing home residents to form attachments.

To test whether residents connected better with Sparky, a real dog, or Aibo, the robotic dog, researchers divided a total of 38 nursing home residents into three groups. All were asked questions to assess their level of loneliness. One group saw Sparky once a week for 30 minutes, another group had similar visits with Aibo, and a control group saw neither furry nor mechanical critter.

After seven weeks, all residents were asked questions about how lonely they felt and how attached they were to the dogs. The residents who received visits from real and artificial pooches felt less lonely and more attached to their canine friends. There was no statistical difference between whether the real or robotic dog did a better job.

The study also suggests that robots with personality also could help care for older adults who live alone and need a little monitoring.

Going to the Dogs

I always said I wanted to come back as my brother-in-law's dog. In the pecking order in his house it is my sister-in-law then a tie between their son and the dog then my brother-in-law. So here is another great reason to be a dog. When you age you too can go to the doggie nursing home.

Busy lives and hectic schedules keep many pet owners from caring for their elderly or sick pets. In Japan, owners of aging pets now have an alternative in the form of the Soladi Care Home for Pets, which opened in June 2007 in Tochigi, Japan.

Most residents are 13 human years or older. Staffed with a 24-hour-a day veterinarian who offers daily health monitoring, the home also provides a full menu of treats that will have most pets licking their chops. The home charges $800 per month and accepts 20 dogs at a time.

They even have intergenerational pet programs where puppies come in and play with their grandparents. Only a matter of time till it gets to the U.S.

Long-term care insurance for pets? Hmmmm. Let me get on that one.

When The Patient is the Doctor

Columbia University psychiatrist Dr. Robert Klitzman has written a book entitled “When Doctors Become Patients.'’ It’s based on his own experience as a patient and interviews with more than 70 physicians.

He discovered to no surprise that when doctors get sick, they discover cracks in the health system that they didn’t know existed. Things they never paid attention to like long waiting times or a broken television really are a big deal.

From a patient perspective one of things he learned was that patients try to please their doctors. You know. The doctor asks “is everything OK” and instead of using it as an opportunity to ask questions and probe, you answer “yes it is.” He also recognized how important spiritual issues and prayer are for patients.

Doctors discovered an interesting thing. It’s not just about the clinical outcome but the total experience. They noticed the physical surroundings, took note of the medication mishaps. They took note of language. Doctors are always quick to tell you the odds for complications in a surgery instead of spinning the positive and tell you the overwhelming odds against complications. It triggers an entirely different emotional response from patients.

Lessons – well for consumers, as always, speak up and advocate for your health care and that of your loved one in a long term facility. For my long-term care colleagues, note that the experience will start mattering more and more as aging health professionals actually have to encounter the system themselves. This is all the more reason to audit and fix the experience. It will lead to the best marketing possible – word of mouth.

Residents Out of Wheelchairs

There is a group I just stumbled upon called the GROW Coalition. GROW stands for “Getting Residents Out Of Wheelchairs.” It is the goal of the GROW Coalition that residents residing in nursing homes use regular seating devices in situations where sitting in a regular chair is considered the norm and socially accepted. Examples would include: eating, activities, sitting and talking with family members, watching TV, listening to an entertainment program, resting when tired and socializing with other residents.

Additionally the goal includes maximizing resident mobility by walking in situations where walking would be the norm. Examples would include: walking to meals, walking to activities, walking outside, walking to deliver an item or a message, walking to therapy, walking to the hair dresser, walking to shower, walking to bathroom, walking to visit other residents and friends, walking with family, and walking to entertainment events.

It is the norm to see many residents in nursing homes crowded around nursing stations in their wheelchairs. Do some absolutely need them all of the time? Sure. But the point of this group is well taken. Sometimes wheelchairs are used by both staff and resident as a crutch. It is easier to deal with someone in a chair than saying having to assist the resident in getting up and transferring them to a seat for example.

Two lessons – for people who have loved ones in nursing homes, be observant to how this play out. But also to those who have loved ones at home in wheelchairs or are in one themselves, ask if the device is absolutely necessary all of the time and whether they have the ability to not use an assistive device at times. That dependency will only carry over and maybe exacerbate the need for long-term care.