TRIB TOTAL MEDIA SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2019 · 7
TECHNOLOGY IN TREATMENT
veterans’ homes and home health care pro-viders
in order to create calming and happy
experiences for residents and patients.
Prominent Pittsburgh neurosurgeon Dr.
Joseph Maroon, who is a consultant with
St. Barnabas’ brain health program and
a member of MyndVR’s research team,
brought the idea of evaluating the videos’
appropriateness and effectiveness for those
living with dementia and Alzheimer’s to
St. Barnabas president William Day. Day
agreed the technology was worth trying.
They launched the program in September
2018.
As many as five residents at a time can
take part in the program. Foust fits each
one with a headset and headphones then
uses a tablet to control which residents
are watching which videos. The categories
are pets, nature, travel, music and the arts,
learning and action — with each video
ranging from just a minute and a half to 10
minutes in length. Most are between three
and five minutes long.
In one day a resident could go from tak-ing
a tour of waterways and ancient tem-ples
in Thailand to visiting Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris to watching a rocket
launch.
“Oh my, look at this,” said a resident
who happened to be swimming through
clear blue water surrounded by a school
of tropical fish water at the moment. “It’s
beautiful.”
Foust pulled up the video she was watch-ing,
and as the resident moved her head
from side to side and up and down to look
around her, the underwater view changed,
too. Just then a virtual giant manta ray
glided across the screen.
“This is incredible,” the resident said,
reaching an arm in front of her.
Later in the session the same resident
reached out again to touch something in
front of her. Foust pulled up the screen to
show that she was currently on a drive-through
zoo tour and reaching out to
touch an antelope approaching the vehicle.
“Beautiful, beautiful,” she said as she
turned her head side to side to take in the
herd all around her. “Hello. Hello. Hello,
baby.”
It’s not uncommon for the residents to
want to interact, particularly with the ani-mals,
Foust said. One video that’s a favor-ite
of many residents shows a group of
puppies playing in a field and the residents
will sometimes call to them or tell them
not to jump up.
Foust limits the sessions to 20 minutes.
Afterward, they discuss what they’ve seen
and where they’ve “gone,” usually over a
cup of coffee.
“Some are more affected by the dis-ease
process than others, so Anna will
ask the person who is further down the
road in terms of short-term memory loss
first about their experience and then go
around,” Hobaugh said.
“They have varying levels of short-term
memory. Some are two minutes tops, some
are a day or a week.”
The purpose of the program, however, is
not to create lasting memories.
It is to calm the residents, lessen their
anxiety, improve their mood, give them
another social and community outlet and
simply make them happy.
Although studies might eventually show
a link between virtual reality and medical
and clinical benefits, Hobaugh said that at
the moment they are happy just with the
obvious benefits for their residents’ emo-tional
well-being.
The calming influence of the videos and
positive diversion can also be an alterna-tive
to anxiety medication for patients who
typically use it on an as-needed basis.
“It’s a positive interruption that we can
use to change people who are a little sad or
blue or worried,” Hobaugh said. “I’ll say,
‘Have you seen this video of Mt. Everest?
Come with me and let’s watch this little
movie. And it’s weird, because you have
to put this thing on your head, but it’ll be
well worth it.’ It’s all about diversion. If we
can get them to focus on something happy,
then they’re not focused on something
sad.”
Bill Geibel’s mother is a resident of St.
Barnabas who started in the program in
September. The Penn Township resident
said he believes his mother is more alert
now than she was before.
“She definitely enjoys it,” he said. “I
haven’t been here every time she’s done it,
but they showed me a video of her doing
it and singing along and I hadn’t heard her
sing in years. That was good.”
When he first heard about the program,
he thought it would be neat. He’d never
seen virtual reality himself, and the day
the staff demonstrated it, he tried it and
thought she would, too.
“When she first put it on she wasn’t too
sure about it, but she enjoys it now,” he
said.
“It makes her happy and gives her plea-sure,
and if it makes her have a good day,
that’s great.”
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