ABSTRACT
This book showcases the state of the art in developing, evaluating, and implementing robotic and web-based assistive technologies designed to improve social health in people with dementia and their (in)formal caregivers. In this chapter, we introduce the concept of assistive technology for social health in dementia. We describe the DISTINCT (Dementia: Intersectoral Strategies for Training and Innovation Network for Current Technology) Innovative Training Network within which 15 Early-Stage Researchers undertook collaborative research with people with dementia and their families, health and social care, academia, and industry. We describe the importance of public and patient involvement, include reflections on the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a section-by-section overview of the book content, orientating the reader to chapters on social media and apps, websites for increasing both social interactions and independence, and social robots at home and in institutional care settings.
