Introducing MARIO, a social robot to people living with dementia in long-term residential care: Reflections.

MARIO is a social robot developed with and for people living with dementia (PLWD) to promote social connectivity, and reduce loneliness and isolation. MARIO provides applications that PLWD can access via speech and touchscreen commands. These applications include My Calendar, (daily schedules and appointments); My Music (personalised music) and My Memories (photographs of family, friends and significant life events). MARIO was developed, tested and evaluated with PLWD in a long-stay residential setting over a 13-month period from September 2016 to October 2017. During the first five months of MARIOs introduction to PLWD, researchers maintained a reflective practice diary capturing their experiences of this process and helping identify strategies that enhance PLWDs engagement. Reflections were analysed in NVIVO 11.4 using thematic analysis, guided by a qualitative descriptive methodology. The following themes emerged: (1) Level of interest in having MARIO present in long-term residential care, (2) MARIOs appearance and functionalities, (3) Engaging with MARIO, (4) Researchers Recommendations for Introducing Robots in Dementia Care and (5) Impact on researchers. Key strategies were also identified which may facilitate engagement of PLWD with social robots. This work highlights the important contribution of reflective practice to the introduction and development of social robots in dementia care.