Video calls let a person with dementia see and hear a family member in real time, and research shows that face-to-face contact through a screen engages residents more than a voice-only phone call. A pilot study at Monash University found that nursing home residents with moderate-to-severe dementia showed less agitation and stayed on the line longer during video calls compared with landline phone calls. That single finding does not mean every video call works the same way or that the technology alone does the work. The research below outlines what video calls can realistically offer a person with dementia, what gets in the way, and what families and care staff can do to make a call worth having.
Medical information disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified health professional about symptoms, medications, tests, or treatment decisions.
Table of Contents
- What the Research Actually Shows About Engagement
- Does Video Calling Reduce Loneliness or Depression?
- What Families Can Do Before and During a Call
- How Care Facilities Can Build Video Calls Into Routine Care
- Who Is Still Studying This, and What's Still Unanswered
What the Research Actually Shows About Engagement
The clearest evidence comes from the Monash University pilot, which randomized nursing home residents to four 20-minute conversations with a family member, delivered either by landline phone or by Skype video, over roughly two weeks. Residents showed less agitation and had longer conversations during the video sessions than during the phone calls, according to the Monash project page. Longer, calmer conversations suggest that seeing a familiar face holds a person's attention in a way that voice alone does not. The pilot's lead researcher, Daniel O'Connor, was careful to note the study's limits: the sample was too small to prove the agitation reduction was statistically significant, and video calls require a staff member or family helper to operate the device, which adds to caregiver workload, as reported by McKnight's Long-Term Care News.
That caveat matters for anyone deciding whether video calls are worth the setup effort — the benefit looks real, but it comes with a labor cost that someone has to absorb. A separate Canadian pilot offers a complementary, larger-scale observation. Across six weeks of facilitated video calls with 21 long-term care residents with dementia, staff observed alertness and apparent pleasure in 92% of sessions, according to coverage from Calgary's Business. The program's organizers were explicit that video calls should supplement in-person family visits, not replace them.
Does Video Calling Reduce Loneliness or Depression?
Engagement during a call is not the same question as whether video calling changes loneliness or mood over time, and the evidence splits on this point. A Cochrane rapid review published in May 2020, covering three Taiwanese nursing-home trials totaling 201 older adults, found that video calls had little to no effect on loneliness at 3, 6, or 12 months, though the video-call group may have had a small reduction in depression at the one-year mark, per Cochrane's summary.
A different study, a 2020 quasi-experimental nursing-home trial using smartphone-based videoconferencing, found improvements in residents' loneliness, physiological health, vitality, and pain scores, but no significant change in depressive symptoms, according to BMC Geriatrics. Put together, these two studies point in somewhat different directions on loneliness and depression specifically, even as the Monash and Canadian pilots agree that calls improve moment-to-moment alertness and engagement. The honest takeaway: video calls reliably change how a person behaves during the call itself, but their effect on longer-term mood is less consistent across studies.
What Families Can Do Before and During a Call
Preparation shapes how well a person with dementia engages, according to guidance from Alzheimer's San Diego. The organization advises family members to research the person's background before a call — birthplace, important relationships, career, hobbies, and talents — so caregivers have material ready that keeps the conversation going, per Alzheimer's San Diego.
These steps address a practical gap: a video call does not automatically give a person with dementia something to talk about. The structure a family member brings to the conversation often matters as much as the video connection itself.
- Have a few concrete topics ready rather than opening with "how are you," which can be hard for someone with memory loss to answer.
- Bring up a specific shared memory, a familiar name, or a hobby the person enjoyed.
- Keep the call short and simple rather than letting it drift into open-ended conversation.
- Expect a staff member or family helper to need to operate the device for the resident, per the Monash pilot's findings noted above.
How Care Facilities Can Build Video Calls Into Routine Care
Facilities can formalize video visits rather than leaving them to ad hoc scheduling. The University of Alberta's "Connecting Today" program trains long-term care staff to facilitate up to 60 minutes per week of video calls between residents with dementia and their family members, aimed at maintaining social connection when in-person visits are limited, according to University of Alberta Folio. Staffing is the recurring constraint across every program in this research. The Monash pilot flagged it, the Canadian pilot built staff facilitation into its design, and the Connecting Today program exists specifically to train staff for that role.
A facility considering a video-call program should budget for a dedicated facilitator's time, not just a tablet or screen. Beyond one-on-one family calls, some programs extend video conferencing into peer support. A 2025 systematic narrative review of 16 studies on videoconferencing support groups for people affected by dementia found that every included study reported some benefit, mainly peer connection and coping strategies, according to research from the University of Oxford Primary Care department. The same review flagged poor internet access as a recurring barrier when facilities or families lack added IT support — a practical limit worth checking before relying on video calls as a primary engagement tool.
Who Is Still Studying This, and What's Still Unanswered
The research base is still growing. University of Illinois researchers Mudar, Raj, and Rogers received grant funding to run a six-week video-based social engagement program trial for 75 family care partners of people with dementia, building on an earlier six-participant focus-group study, according to the University of Illinois CHART Lab.
A trial of that size should offer firmer answers than the small pilots conducted so far on which specific call formats and support structures help family care partners, not just residents. For now, the dependable finding across every study is narrower than "video calls help": they improve alertness, conversation length, and apparent engagement during the call itself, with staff support and some preparation. Whether that translates into lower loneliness or depression over months still depends on which study is asked, and poor internet access remains a barrier that can block the benefit entirely if nobody addresses it.
