OpenLab, based out of Toronto General Hospital, is researching how virtual reality can be used to improve the lives of senior patients. This gentlemen tested it out a few weeks ago at November’s HealthAchieve conference in Toronto. (Submitted by Lora Appel/University Health Network)
Seniors probably aren’t the first demographic that comes to mind when you think of virtual reality. But a few groups in Canada believe a dose of VR might just make the perfect medicine.
Researchers in different parts of the country are looking into how VR can be prescribed to elderly patients to rehabilitate them from things like strokes, treat depression, dementia and anxiety, and serve as an escape from their hospital or hospice beds.
Lora Appel, a researcher with OpenLab at Toronto General Hospital, has been focusing her VR research efforts on seniors with dementia. Some of these patients don’t get to go outside much because they like to wander — and that can be dangerous.
Her hope is to use VR as a tool to take them outdoors virtually and cut down on the wandering.
“I have no doubt this will improve quality of life,” she said.
Appel’s team has yet to test the technology with seniors, but she and her colleagues are well into the research phase and hope to roll out a pilot project by the end of the summer.
Will they wear it?
But immersive VR technology can be mind-altering for even the sharpest of brains. There are concerns about what will happen when an elderly person is outfitted with a tight-fitting pair of VR goggles.
Some seniors, especially those with dementia, may already have a hard time understanding what is going on around them. VR may only make things worse.
The goggles have been known to cause motion sickness, particularly in women, according to a 2016 study.
“Some people will likely not want to tolerate this headset,” she said. “[But] with training, I think they will be able to handle it.”
OpenLab showed some of its VR films at the HealthAchieve conference in Toronto this past November, earning the group praise from those who tried it out.
“They just kept saying, ‘This would be perfect for my father,'” Appel said. Her team is taking cues from music therapy — she specifically mentioned the wide-eyed old man from the documentary Alive Inside, whose reaction to hearing music went viral online.
“We’re thinking that VR might be version 2.0 of this.”
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Source: CBC