How virtual reality is being used to deliver mental health care
The potential of virtual reality (VR) to help deliver mental health care has long been known.
But until recently the technology has been very expensive — and not particularly good.
That’s all changed with the arrival of cheaper and far more sophisticated devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
As it’s currently Mental Health Week, it’s worth looking at how the potential of VR is starting to be realised.
How is VR already being used?
Technologist Greg Wadley from the University of Melbourne said the main use for VR has been in the area of exposure therapy for phobias and anxieties.
For instance, ever since flight simulators were invented, they have been used to help people overcome their fear of flying.
The technology has improved drastically over the past 20 years, however. Commercially available VR headsets can now put people in front of a virtual crowd, allowing them to deal with their fear of public speaking in a controlled environment.
Dr Wadley said the better technology doesn’t just make simulations more visually realistic. It can also make programs more behaviourally accurate.
“So you can imagine the audience responding to things that you’re saying in a realistic way.”
In addition, researchers from the University of Oxford are helping people with paranoia deal with difficult social situations such as encountering strangers in crowded lifts and trains.
“Patients who fully tested out their fears in virtual reality were later much less distressed even when in a real-world situation, such as going to the local shop,” their study found.
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Source: ABC Australia