Tough Times, Extraordinary Care: A Critical Assessment of Chatbot-Based Digital Mental Healthcare Solutions for Older Persons to Fight Against Pandemics Like COVID-19.

Pandemics like COVID-19 confine and isolate people due to the necessary physical distancing, lockdown or quarantine countermeasure, which can in particular deteriorate the social environment for older people. Chatbots are a significant part of COVID-19 countermeasures for providing digital mental health services to older people in order to ‘keep them alive’ during the fight against this pandemic. This study performs a critical assessment of the state of the art and the research gaps regarding the topic and proposes high-level, strategic solutions to help researchers and practitioners speed up the corresponding project planning and mitigate the potential development risks. The design of mental health chatbots is grounded in the fields of psychology and culture and utilizes the most advanced information and communication technologies including conversational interfaces, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. A strong interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration is essential to better understand the mental hardships of older people during such times and take effective measures to alleviate their suffering. Research in this field provides long-term, sustainable value to our society.