VR-CARES: Feasibility of Virtual Reality for Caregiver Assembly, Relief, Empowerment, and Support to Improve Social Connection, Health, and At-home Dementia Care

Summary

The VR-CARES project is an innovative, collaborative effort that invites dementia care professionals into the design process of a virtual reality platform seeking to mitigate their work-related burden and social isolation by cultivating a virtual community of support. The co-created, caregiver-specific VR platform will serve as a safe, communal space where caregivers can remotely connect with their peers, share fun experiences together, access support, learn self-care and build resilience within a supportive virtual network to enhance their social and mental health and job satisfaction. Central to VR-CARES in the principle of user-led innovation, ensuring that the technology not only serves but is informed and successfully adopted by the very individuals it intends to benefit, an important standard for empathetic and inclusive technology in healthcare.

Description

Eligibility

Age range

18+ years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Interventions

• Behavioral
  Rendever VR Social Engagement Platform

  Participants will be trained how to use Rendever's core VR platform (Engage) and encouraged to use the core social platform independently and with their clients for \~4-8 weeks to build rapport and engage their clients doing fun activities, traveling, visiting personally important places to each other in the VR platform.

• Behavioral
  VR-CARES Platform

  Participants will use Rendever's newly designed VR-CARES support platform, developed with insights from the first focus group, for 8 weeks. Participants engage with other direct care workers in a virtual community support setting intended to provide supportive resources and content for group social activities and improve wellbeing and job satisfaction for direct care workers.

Locations (6)