# Virtual Reality Helps Senior Loneliness & Mental Health Using Recent Immersive Technology



## Lara (Apr 5, 2021)

*Virtual Reality Can Counteract Feelings Of Loneliness
Studies have found that isolation and loneliness are worse for health than obesity or smoking, especially if you are over 50—the risks of prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.*

Virtual Reality (VR) is being used to better the lives of senior citizens all over the world by reducing loneliness, improving their mental health and transporting them to far-flung places without needing to leave the comfort of their home.

These are some recent examples of the ways immersive technology is having a positive impact on seniors.

Kenta Toshima, a Tokyo researcher, is using VR to help nursing home residents visit places from their pasts and tick off locations on their bucket lists. He's doing it by capturing made-to-order VR experiences with an 8K 360 camera.

*“By supplementing their physical handicap with technology, the VR travel experiences can help improve the elderly’s motivation for rehabilitation and improve their quality of life. The VR experience makes them feel like they are out of the nursing home and can help ease their anxiety and loneliness.”*

While virtual reality experiences are usually done alone, running a programme in a nursing home allows multiple patients to use the technology at once. Sharing their feelings and experience with those around them creates a sense of community which can counteract feelings of loneliness.
Videos of the elderly patients experiencing new places in virtual reality are shared on Toshima’s social media accounts—the results are truly heartwarming.

*VR Allows Seniors to See Their Future Home Before It Exists*
Moving is a major life event at any age, and it’s even more significant for retirees. To help seniors feel comfortable in their housing decisions, Cloverwood Senior Living is partnering with Arnold Imaging to use virtual reality to fully immerse prospective residents in a tour of the future Terraces at Cloverwood, allowing them to envision themselves in their potential new home.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people over age 65 represent 16% of the total U.S. population. By 2030, all Baby Boomers will be over the age of 65. Cloverwood’s introduction of immersive VR to the next generation of retirement living is giving seniors peace of mind, eliminating fear of change, and lending a memorable and impactful experience they can’t typically be offered before construction of a physical building.
Neuroscientists have learned that the way our brain makes big decisions—like where to live—draws from emotions we’ve stored and previous experiences (both positive and negative), then cross-references that with places we’ve been. If it’s a positive experience, we move forward; if it’s negative, we retreat.


> “We are removing the barrier of the unknown as people are able to see themselves in their new community and their new apartment. The tour has been met with great enthusiasm and excitement, defying stereotypes about older adults not being willing to embrace new technology. Our experience has been quite the opposite. The use of VR is mitigating anxiety because seniors are able to get an authentic and emotional feel for the atmosphere that typical renderings and 2D technology can’t offer.”
> Adell Cuminale, Cloverwood Senior Marketing Counselor


*VR Can Be Used For Travel And Time Travel*
Two Tucson retirement communities are the launch pad for a program to see how virtual reality technology helps senior citizens with cognition, dementia, loneliness and other issues.
Via Oculus Quest—Facebook’s standalone VR device—elderly residents have been able to ride on a roller coaster, visit the Egyptian Pyramids and take a trip down memory lane, back to places they used to live.
The program—Engage VR—was developed by Grayson Barnes, a 20-year-old Rochester Institute of Technology student for Watermark Retirement Communities.

*VR Can Help Tackle Social Isolation*

AARP Innovation Labs built Alcove, a VR app which focuses on family and social connection. Alcove bridges the physical distance between family members and empowers people to experience new places and things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do because of cost, time or mobility constraints.

The immersive ecosystem that AARP has built at human scale allows users to enter and navigate on their own, or in multiplayer with their family and friends. For example, you can traverse a home with an elderly parent living alone. At first glance, the home seems ordinary, but users soon realize it is not.


> “There are no bedrooms, bathrooms, or kitchen. Instead, it is home to a magical space that invites discovery and allows users to transport themselves to new worlds, and explore the complete immersion and interactivity that VR has to offer.”
> Cezara Windrem, Innovation Catalyst and Head of VR, AARP


Alcove Travel Room
AARP
Alcove seeks to bridge the physical distance between family members and empowers people to experience new places and things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.
Alcove was developed in collaboration with Rendever—a startup which has a virtual reality platform that provides cognitive stimulation and socialization to seniors.


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## MarciKS (Apr 5, 2021)

Too bad they couldn't come up with a Virtual Friendship sort of thing. Where someone whose lonely could have a virtual friend if no live ones were available.


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## Rosemarie (Apr 5, 2021)

MarciKS said:


> Too bad they couldn't come up with a Virtual Friendship sort of thing. Where someone whose lonely could have a virtual friend if no live ones were available.


Yes, I think loneliness is cured by having physical contact with other people. Perhaps these techies are confusing loneliness with boredom?


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## MarciKS (Apr 5, 2021)

Rosemarie said:


> Yes, I think loneliness is cured by having physical contact with other people. Perhaps these techies are confusing loneliness with boredom?


Yeah. Taking a virtual trip isn't gonna fix the need for companionship.


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## Lara (Apr 6, 2021)

The article above mentions that taking VR tours is a program with groups of seniors in a room together who then share their feelings of the experience. They are not alone...unless they choose to do it alone. Even then the article says that the seniors feel that they are not in the nursing home anymore which relieves anxiety and loneliness.

"While virtual reality experiences are usually done alone, running a program in a nursing home allows multiple patients to use the technology at once. Sharing their feelings and experience with those around them creates a sense of community which can counteract feelings of loneliness.
Videos of the elderly patients experiencing new places in virtual reality are shared on Toshima’s social media accounts—the results are truly heartwarming."


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## Lara (Apr 6, 2021)

The project came about while Kenta Toshima was working in a care facility and an elderly patient mentioned to him that she wished she could visit her favorite plum orchard. Toshima decided to visit the orchard and take pictures for her... videos that matched her memories. He was then inspired to use a 360-degree camera to help create a wider and more beautiful view of locations that the patients could explore with a VR headset. He's working on a program using family photos and memorable events from a seniors past to help them feel at home.





KENTA TOSHIMA


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## Lara (Apr 6, 2021)

Two Tucson retirement communities are the launch pad for a program to see how virtual reality technology helps senior citizens with cognition, dementia, loneliness and other issues.

Via Oculus Quest—Facebook’s standalone VR device—elderly residents have been able to ride on a roller coaster, visit the Egyptian Pyramids and take a trip down memory lane, back to places they used to live.

The program—Engage VR—was developed by Grayson Barnes, a 20-year-old Rochester Institute of Technology student for Watermark Retirement Communities.





Joy Kay, resident at The Fountains at La Cholla, using a virtual reality device to ride a roller ... [+]

 REBECCA SASNETT/ARIZONA DAILY STAR VIA AP


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## Dana (Apr 6, 2021)

.
_Seems a good idea to relieve boredom and give some cheer to both young and old who can’t leave their homes. However, users of virtual reality have had some very troubling effects.

These include damage to their vision, disorientation, and even seizures. It is quite dangerous for those who suffer Schizophrenia._
.


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## Rosemarie (Apr 6, 2021)

So actually, it is less to do with loneliness and more to do with keeping their minds stimulated.


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## Lara (Apr 6, 2021)

@Rosemarie Stimulating the mind would take your mind off loneliness...no?

AARP has built this VR app (below)....Face Time or Zoom would seem better but the difference is that they experience new places and things together.

AARP Innovation Labs built Alcove, a VR app which focuses on family and social connection. Alcove bridges the physical distance between family members and empowers people to experience new places and things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do because of cost, time or mobility constraints.



> “There are no bedrooms, bathrooms, or kitchen. Instead, it is home to a magical space that invites discovery and allows users to transport themselves to new worlds, and explore the complete immersion and interactivity that VR has to offer.”
> Cezara Windrem, Innovation Catalyst and Head of VR, AARP







Alcove Travel Room

AARP
Alcove seeks to bridge the physical distance between family members and empowers people to experience new places and things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Alcove was developed in collaboration with Rendever—a startup which has a virtual reality platform that provides cognitive stimulation and socialization to seniors.


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## Victor (Apr 11, 2021)

Lara said:


> *Virtual Reality Can Counteract Feelings Of Loneliness
> Studies have found that isolation and loneliness are worse for health than obesity or smoking, especially if you are over 50—the risks of prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.*
> 
> Virtual Reality (VR) is being used to better the lives of senior citizens all over the world by reducing loneliness, improving their mental health and transporting them to far-flung places without needing to leave the comfort of their home.
> ...


First, I don't trust anything virtual nor does it satisfy me at all. Makes me want the real thing. Virtual can be very deceptive and addicting! Places that help seniors are making nice profits, too.
Second, I have read about the connection of loneliness to health and heart since the early 80s in a book. Don't believe it one bit, nor is there true valid evidence. Consider all that science would need to know in order to establish this factually. Surveys? Not reliable. Moreover, it is better that we NOT believe it--it could become a self fulfilling prophecy. One poster said that people confuse boredom with loneliness and or depression. I can be bored but not lonely. Depressed but not lonely, etc.
   Just talking with someone is not the answer--for me. It depends who it is and what you are talking about.
Two lonely guys talking together is no help, no relief, or picnic. And talking about your problems, I read, can actually make you feel worse, not better. I think this is true for almost everyone.


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## MarciKS (Apr 11, 2021)

Anything they can do to help people in nursing homes is great. However...it usually means that the place becomes a lot more expensive to live in. Seniors get reamed enough in their pocketbooks as it is.


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## SetWave (Apr 11, 2021)




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## J-Kat (Dec 6, 2021)

I've been rather intrigued by VR since recently running across an article about MyndVR.com.  The VR is used in nursing homes and assistive living centers with mildly cognitive impaired people.  Apparently it has been successful in a lot of cases in helping people reconnect with past memories.  One lady was shown the home she had lived in for many years and she was amazed and grateful that she was able to see her old home again.  Another was in Paris and was exclaiming that she had been to a certain cafe and had walked down the street that was being shown.  I always thought VR was for "gamers" who played video games 24/7 but apparently there is a lot of content that is related to travel, exercise, museum tours, puzzles, meditation, etc. that would be enjoyable for older people.  This MyndVR company also has VR setups for people in their own homes who are isolated or unable to get out very often or who might just enjoy exploring the VR experience and content.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 6, 2021)

It’s an interesting concept, but I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it as anything more than a toy.

The idea of it as therapy or an escape makes me think of an electronic drug.

Maybe we could try it with prisoners to see how they would react to living in an artificial world of their own making instead of dealing with daily prison life.

If it is actually effective no one will need a nice home, nice furnishing, a nice car, etc... they can just put on their magic glasses and float through life.

We’ll see.


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