Supporting “Stop and Watch” in elderly care with socially assistive robots: insights from a participatory design workshop
Supporting “Stop and Watch” in elderly care with socially assistive robots: insights from a participatory design workshop
“Stop and Watch” is an early-warning tool adopted by the UK NHS and is widely used in elderly care settings. The tool helps caregivers to recognise abnormal changes in residents’ health. Despite its clinical value, the process remains highly manual, workload-intensive, and vulnerable to missed observations, particularly in environments facing staff shortages, frequent staff rotations, and increasing care demands. We argue that AI-based systems such as Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) and Assistive Living Technologies (ALTs) offer promising avenues for supporting and enhancing the “Stop and Watch” tool. However, designing such systems requires a multidisciplinary effort to establish a comprehensive understanding of current practices and the priorities and concerns of all relevant stakeholders. This paper presents insights from a participatory design workshop held in a care home in the UK to explore how SARs and ALTs could meaningfully support the “Stop and Watch” tool, understand stakeholders’ expectations, perceived benefits, and concerns regarding deployment in this sensitive context.
assistive living technologies, elderly care, socially assistive robots
302-306
Tuyen, Nguyen Tan Viet
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Georgara, Athina
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Singh, Lokesh
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Deshmukh, Jayati
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Davey, Sean
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Tisdale, Paul N.
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Ramchurn, Sarvapali
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16 March 2026
Tuyen, Nguyen Tan Viet
52bb13c3-6a64-481a-84ba-0aaec912a1ae
Georgara, Athina
76b3b7b3-4693-4363-9ade-c655b86199ae
Singh, Lokesh
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Deshmukh, Jayati
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Davey, Sean
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Tisdale, Paul N.
cbaa4016-543e-40e0-8f63-e91866a990ce
Ramchurn, Sarvapali
1d62ae2a-a498-444e-912d-a6082d3aaea3
Tuyen, Nguyen Tan Viet, Georgara, Athina, Singh, Lokesh, Deshmukh, Jayati, Davey, Sean, Tisdale, Paul N. and Ramchurn, Sarvapali
(2026)
Supporting “Stop and Watch” in elderly care with socially assistive robots: insights from a participatory design workshop.
Baillie, Lynne, Smart, William D., De Graaf, Maartje, Gombolay, Matthew and Torre, Ilaria
(eds.)
In Companion Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, HRI Companion 2026.
ACM Press.
.
(doi:10.1145/3776734.3794404).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
“Stop and Watch” is an early-warning tool adopted by the UK NHS and is widely used in elderly care settings. The tool helps caregivers to recognise abnormal changes in residents’ health. Despite its clinical value, the process remains highly manual, workload-intensive, and vulnerable to missed observations, particularly in environments facing staff shortages, frequent staff rotations, and increasing care demands. We argue that AI-based systems such as Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) and Assistive Living Technologies (ALTs) offer promising avenues for supporting and enhancing the “Stop and Watch” tool. However, designing such systems requires a multidisciplinary effort to establish a comprehensive understanding of current practices and the priorities and concerns of all relevant stakeholders. This paper presents insights from a participatory design workshop held in a care home in the UK to explore how SARs and ALTs could meaningfully support the “Stop and Watch” tool, understand stakeholders’ expectations, perceived benefits, and concerns regarding deployment in this sensitive context.
Text
3776734.3794404
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 12 January 2026
Published date: 16 March 2026
Keywords:
assistive living technologies, elderly care, socially assistive robots
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 511593
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/511593
PURE UUID: 3d172e90-2019-4cf6-b5a7-827c12d24ae4
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 22 May 2026 16:34
Last modified: 23 May 2026 02:40
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Contributors
Author:
Nguyen Tan Viet Tuyen
Author:
Athina Georgara
Author:
Lokesh Singh
Author:
Jayati Deshmukh
Author:
Sean Davey
Author:
Paul N. Tisdale
Author:
Sarvapali Ramchurn
Editor:
Lynne Baillie
Editor:
William D. Smart
Editor:
Maartje De Graaf
Editor:
Matthew Gombolay
Editor:
Ilaria Torre
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