Virtual Reality Helps Seniors With Dementia Get Back on Track
Virtual reality (VR) is helping seniors with cognitive and physical impairments express themselves and experience the outside world.
Residents at Maplewood Senior Living, assisted-living communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio, are typically in their 80s or 90s, with cognitive disorders, chronic medical conditions, or mobility constraints.
One resident, Olympia, struggles with dementia. People with dementia often get “agitated or upset,” said Brian Geyser, Maplewood’s Vice President of Clinical Innovation and Population Health. They obsess over a single, frustrating thought and can’t let it go.
A lover of horses, Olympia joined 10-15 other residents when Maplewood first introduced VR for group events and therapy a few months ago. When she put her headset on, she found herself immersed in a 360 degree-world of wild horses.
The effect was calming, said Geyser. Distraction, redirection, reminiscence therapies help people with dementia forget troubling thoughts and reduce their anxiety and agitation. With a tool like Rendever’s VR headset, they can go on a virtual African safari or take a stroll down memory lane.
Another resident, Micky, has expressive aphasia – a partial loss of verbal language. Her speech is garbled and she is frustrated with her inability to express herself. During her first virtual experience, she found herself surrounded by puppies.
“She just lit up,” Geyser said. “And she said …, ‘Oh my God, look at the puppies.’” It was the first time in months that she had said anything meaningful that people could understand.
“The cool thing about Rendever,” added Geyser, “is it allows us to use VR both on an individual basis, but even more importantly, in group settings,” where participants physically interact with the virtual environment and with each other instead of watching television for hours.
Virtual reality has been in use since the early 1990s, helping treat phobias and war-related trauma. VR's use in therapy is far outpacing research, which has yet to determine how it affects the brain in the long-term.
