The purpose of this study is to explore novel ways to use Virtual Reality (VR) to reduce resident responsive behaviours and maintain a healthy workforce, which has become a priority for The Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre (Perley Rideau) as well as for the province of Ontario.
FUNDED BY:
SPARK Grant – Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), 2018
With a growing aging population, older adults are living longer, with many fortunate to remain in the setting of their choice until much later in life. As a result, when people do require long-term care (LTC), many are arriving with multiple co-morbidities, higher levels of frailty, and advanced dementia. Responsive behaviours are often exhibited by people with dementia and can include physical (striking out, biting, grabbing etc.) and/or verbal (cursing, screaming, etc.) responsiveness. These behaviours can show patterns such as sundowning and be triggered by particular care or treatment activities such as dressing changes (e.g. wound care), or personal care (e.g. bathing).
Responsive behaviours are related to staff burnout levels, which contribute to high absenteeism, turnover, low engagement, and higher risk of abuse or neglect. Exposure to natural environments (seeing greenery, hearing outside natural sounds) has been shown to decrease, anxiety and physiological distress. VR technology presents a unique opportunity to transport participants away from the environment that may be amplifying their distress, and expose them to natural calming settings (e.g. peaceful lake, quiet forest) enabled by novel technology that uses 360-degree films. VR Head Mounted Devices seamlessly replace the real environment with rich sights and sounds generating a three-dimensional simulated world, displayed all around the viewer.
The project will involve administering VR therapy to residents with responsive behaviours both regularly and targeting episodes of care/treatment. We will explore the impact of VR on responsive behaviours and its contributing factors such as pain, as well as the impact on health care providers (HCPs) including injuries, burnout level, absenteeism and turnover rate.