When isolating inside for the collective wellbeing of humanity, it’s easy to feel down without the stimulation of being able to constantly interact with others. Virtual Reality (VR) simulations present a unique opportunity in helping people connect. Video interviews and work conferences through VR are becoming increasingly popular and allow you to feel more immersed in your work environment. Being able to see your colleagues and interact, even if only virtually, creates a greater sense of community that can’t be communicated over the phone or even through Zoom calls.

VR technology is also incredibly powerful in its ability to create an interactive classroom setting. With a VR headset, there are no incoming distractions from the outside world. Students can continue to learn distraction-free without worry of exposing themselves to COVID-19. Additionally, sites such as opencolleges.edu show that VR improves student’s motivation so that they feel more inclined to make the most of their learning experiences.

It’s also important to acknowledge how VR is shifting the realm of psychology and what this means for psychologists to interact with their patients. Psychologists are working with VR to develop experiments in which they can create studies that allow them to have control over a variety of social scenarios. They can create virtual avatars that all look the same to control all the variables. They can then test them against each other and find out how to better reach and communicate with certain people.
A recent study focused specifically around this premise. In the study they concluded the utility of VR for psychology by acknowledging the context of VR in the psychological realm, exploring the hardware itself, and analyzing various projects and systems that are combining psychology and VR/AI. A cool example included a socially aware robot assistant (SARA) created by the ArticuLab at Carnegie Mellon University that is able to “recognize both non-verbal (visual and vocal) and verbal signals and utilizes AI to form her answer”.

VR can also be used to connect with a therapist or with a therapy group during this time. These sessions can often be even more convenient and effective than an-in person sessions, and are particularly useful in this time of isolation.

VR is not only expanding technology, but the field of psychology. It demonstrates how we are adapting to these isolating times and creating new and effective ways to interact with others. Talking to friends and teachers is easier than ever before thanks to VR, and technology is continuing to evolve, leading to endless possibilities. Companies such as Foretell Reality see the opportunities this pandemic gives to create new ways of interacting that can benefit everyone in more convenient ways than ever before.

We have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Asher Marks over many months on a pilot program that provides Virtual Reality (VR) support groups to patients in the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Oncology clinic at Yale New Haven Hospital.

With the pilot nearing its end, Dr. Marks has published an article highlighting the role of VR in telepsychiatry including the specific benefits of VR support groups. Below are some key takeaways:

1. Telephone and video conferencing fall short when it comes to “sharing a therapeutic physical space, being able to communicate via non-verbal cues, and being able to interact without distraction,”
2. Of all immersive technologies, VR is the most “mature, available, and studied.”
3. Availability of consumer ready headsets over the past year “has greatly expanded VR’s potential to be incorporated into telehealth and telepsychiatry.”
4. Early hurdles to leveraging VR included ensuring physical and emotional safety, infection control measures, and the ability to collaborate with rapid tech industry timelines.
5. Initial findings of the pilot program are “very encouraging.”
6. After this pilot has concluded, “the intention is to move forward with a larger, multi-institutional Phase 2 trial assessing risks and benefits of VR based support groups as compared to other viable solutions to the remote care problem.”
7. Though the population for this pilot was younger and therefore more comfortable with new technologies, another pilot showed the viability VR support groups for older patients dealing with grief.

Read the full article here.

Foretell Reality is an enterprise VR solution for interpersonal communication and business collaboration. Learn more here.

Support groups and group therapy in VR offer immersion, privacy, and accessibility in ways video therapy cannot. Watch the video below to learn more about the benefits and experience of attending therapeutic group sessions in VR.

Learn more about Foretell Reality for support and therapy through this newly produced video and reach out today for a demo.

We are starting to see more studies about the efficacy of #VirtualReality (#VR) for mental health assessment. The ability to analyze behavioral data in a variety of scenarios distinguishes VR from other digital #telehealth technologies.

#ForetellReality analytics provide behavioral data tied to social engagement including time spent speaking, direction of gaze, and who is talking to and/or over other participants. We do not store this or any other personal data to ensure HIPPA compliance, but we do make they analytics available to our moderators, clinicians, and therapists to help them personalize and improve outcomes.

Here is what one large-scale study from last month concluded about VR assessment for #mentalheath :

“Automatic data capture of behaviors and signals from VR experiences can reveal important insights that might improve our understanding of mental health conditions and inform more tailored treatments.”

Read more here:

Foretell Reality is an enterprise VR solution for interpersonal communication and business collaboration. Learn more here.

A recent survey from the American Psychological Association finds that 76% of clinicians are conducting all of their sessions through teletherapy while only 16% are doing a combination of remote and in-person sessions.

While telehealth provides great benefits like convenience and flexibility and can embolden patients to open up even more than they might in person, there are drawbacks. With many people constantly on video calls for school and work, a phenomenon known as ‘Zoom fatigue’ can result in patients not feeling fully present in a conversation and that can require therapists to be extra vigilant in driving conversations.

Virtual Reality (VR) can combat ‘Zoom fatigue’ by offering a much more immersive experience. This is particularly effective for group therapy and support. Unlike telehealth visits through a phone or laptop, VR provides an immersive, distraction-free experience in which remote support group attendees and therapy clients interact with one another through personalized, expressive avatars in shared, 3D environments.

Embodying a virtual identity provides anonymity, if desired, and eliminates fears of being judged by appearance while still allowing for human-like gestures, directional gazing, manipulation of objects, and movement within space.

Group conversation flows more freely in VR allowing therapists to observe both verbal and non verbal cues in ways they cannot through a webcam. VR allows for interactions between people like handing someone a virtual tissue or a providing a comforting touch on the shoulder.

While applications like Zoom work well for certain kinds of communication, therapeutic interactions benefit from the authenticity and realism found in VR.

Foretell Reality is an enterprise VR solution for interpersonal communication and business collaboration. Learn more here.