Alexa to Support Patients with Dementia and Family Caregivers in Challenging Behaviors

Patients with Dementia (PwD) present psychological and behavioral alterations, such as short-term memory loss, anxiety, depression, repetitive questions/behaviors. The repetitive questions/behaviors are one of the most common symptoms of PwD, and these challenging behaviors are also one of the most reported by the caregivers because this problem could exasperate caregivers. There is an increasing interest in creating strategies or training to support PwD and caregivers to deal with these problems. In the case of dementia care and caregiving, information technologies have been identified as a possible way of support. Specifically, Intelligent voice assistants have been suggested as a potential source of assistance for older adults in general. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with family caregivers and one expert. As a result, we present a model for attending challenging behaviors in PwD using the benefits of voice assistants as Alexa. This study also present a pilot study were a user interacted with Alexa and the results were favorable.