Time to Get Personal: Individualised Virtual Reality for Mental Health

PubDate: April 2020

Teams: Massey University，Otago Polytechnic Auckland Campus，Harvard Medical School，University of Auckland，Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University，Media Design School

Writers: Nilufar Baghaei；Lehan Stemmet；Andrej Hlasnik；Konstantin Emanov；Sylvia Hach；John A. Naslund；Mark Billinghurst；Imran Khaliq；Hai-Ning Liang

PDF: Time to Get Personal: Individualised Virtual Reality for Mental Health

Abstract

Mental health conditions pose a major challenge to healthcare providers and society at large. Early intervention can have significant positive impact on a person’s prognosis, particularly important in improving mental health outcomes and functioning for young people. Virtual Reality (VR) in mental health is an emerging and innovative field. Recent studies support the use of VR technology in the treatment of anxiety, phobia, eating disorders, addiction, and pain management. However, there is little research on using VR for supporting, treatment and prevention of depression – a field that is very much emerging. There is also very little work done in offering individualised VR experience to users with mental health issues. This paper proposes iVR, a novel individualised VR for improving users’ self-compassion, and in the long run, their positive mental health. We describe the concept, design, architecture and implementation of iVR and outline future work. We believe this contribution will pave the way for large-scale efficacy testing, clinical use, and potentially cost-effective delivery of VR technology for mental health therapy in future.