VR-CARES: Feasibility of Virtual Reality for Caregiver Assembly, Relief, Empowerment, and Support to Improve Social Connection, Health, and At-home Dementia Care
Rendever, Inc.
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
The escalating demand for home-based caregiving, combined with a high turnover rate and prevalence of stress and burden in this workforce, presents a unique challenge within the healthcare sector. High turnover rates are especially difficult for care recipients with dementia who benefit from consistency. Caregivers are often socially isolated at work due to the intimate care they provide to socially isolated clients. The VR-CARES initiative is an innovative response to these issues built upon Rendever's existing social engagement VR platform and vast content to provide a novel caregiver suppor…