Cat and dog robots are helping elderly residents to cope with loneliness at an old folks’ home.

Watch the robotic cats and dogs who are helping elderly residents to cope with loneliness

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St. Oswald’s retirement village in Gloucester has brought in two robotic pets named Lucy and Hasbro to give the elderly residents company.

Lucy is a ginger cat with the fur while Hasbro is a Golden Retriever.

The robotic pets meow, bark and wag their tails when elderly residents pet them.

Gloucestershire County Council, which runs adult social care services in the county, has an apartment in the retirement village to put the robotic pets on a show that help elderly residents to cope with anxiety and loneliness.

Leader of the county council Mark Hawthorne said: ”We’re able to show how this technology is helping us do our job today, and how it can help us do more in the future.”

“Technology has increased in leaps and bounds. Think about where we will be in the next 10 years.”

“That dog in the corner won’t just be barking, it will be following you around your home and picking up your slippers. The fact we’re here today, talking about how we are using the technology today, puts us on the course we need to be.”

A report, published in the International Journal of Older People Nursing, shows that robotic pets help reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

The report’s lead author Rebecca Abbott, from the University of Exeter Medical School in England, said: “Although not every care home resident may choose to interact with robopets, for those who do, they appear to offer many benefits.”

“Some of these are around stimulating conversations or triggering memories of their own pets or past experiences, and there is also the comfort of touching or interacting with the robopet itself.”

“The joy of having something to care for was a strong finding across many of the studies.”

 

 

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