Home deployment of a doubt removal telecare service for cognitively impaired elderly people: a field deployment

Companion robots could have potential to help and improve the daily living of home-dwelling disabled elderly people and of their caregivers. Robots allow deployment with a lesser impact on the home of the user and mobility to bring communication or support where it's needed. As part of AAL DOMEO project we tested a doubt removal service to allow the main caregiver of a couple of nonagenarians with motor and cognitive impairment assess the status of her parents when she is in her own home and suspects a problem. We will present the methodology, including ethical aspects, and preliminary results. We will discuss the issues that arose from the confrontation of the technical requirements and the sociocultural background when a service based on cognitive infocommunications is required to cope with cognitive impairment and adapt to the requirements of patients and caregivers alike.