Your report (‘It’s almost magical’: how robotic pets are helping UK care home residents, 1 September) made for depressing reading. Some 70% of residents in care homes do indeed have some form of dementia or severe memory problems. Evidence that they can be helped by interaction with robotic dogs, cats and seals is mixed, to say the least.
Much more important is creating an environment where staff work in conditions that allow them to provide the sort of support that can enable residents to reach their full potential. Yet adult social care workers are among the lowest-paid in the UK. Research suggests more than a quarter of residential care workers are living in, or close to, poverty. Overseas migrant labour is increasingly common in care homes, with use of exploitative sponsorship schemes.
Use of £100 robots must be seen as a symptom of the crisis in care. The way forward must be options such as expanding schemes that involve creative workers of all kinds in supporting care homes, developing strong links between homes and the wider community (partnerships with schools have been highly successful in the US), and expanding the range of neighbourhood-based organisations able to support people with dementia. Rethinking not just funding but the type of homes we want people to live in is an urgent priority – one where a national debate is urgently needed.
Chris Phillipson
Professor emeritus of sociology and social gerontology, University of Manchester