In order to learn more about the perspective of children and adolescents in the psychiatric setting, a qualitative explorative study was conducted. In a pilot project in Switzerland, in a psychiatric clinic for children and adolescents, the project team observed that PARO seemed to have a positive impact on their well-being (Rung, Günther, Backe, Chopard & Wöckle, 2017). Originally developed for use in geriatrics (Shibata & Wada, 2010), it is now also used with children and adolescents. In practice, PARO should be used in a needs-oriented, targeted and always accompanied manner (Birks et al., 2016 Zegelin & Meyer, 2018). It can also store behaviours, such as petting or sounds, and recall them at a later time (Petersen, Houston, Qin, Taque & Studley, 2016).
PARO resembles a baby seal and has touch and light sensors, sound source direction, speech recognition, balance and sense of touch (Shibata, Wada, Saito & Tanie, 2005). The socially-interactive robot PARO has already gained a level of media and social awareness. Few studies investigate the benefits and use of robotics in care (Fioranelli, 2019). In Europe, the development and use of robotics in healthcare is still in its infancy. Robots show the greatest relief effect in shortening commuting times or in taking over physically demanding tasks (Fioranelli, 2019). On the one hand, robotics can contribute to solving the shortage of skilled workers, on the other hand, robots support nursing staff in caring for elderly people. The topic of robotics is increasingly in the spotlight (Bendel, 2018). In order to learn more about this, researchers at BFH Health conducted an exploratory study with young patients. However, the effect of the robotised baby seal in psychiatry is still unclear.
Increasingly, PARO is also being used in child and adolescent psychiatry. The PARO robot was originally designed for the geriatric setting.
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