getting serious about
Serious VR Games
for People with Dementia and their Caregivers
There is increasing evidence of the effectiveness of game-based dementia treatments, with a growing investment in applications that use novel technologies like Virtual Reality (VR). VR-games offer a superior sense of immersion, interactivity, and imagination by providing players with exciting and life-like multisensory (vision, hearing, and touch-based) experiences. Unfortunately, the few VR-games created for people with dementia, and frail older adults in general, do not meet their complex needs. VR-games for this population must be intentionally designed for varying levels of cognitive and physical ability.
We will recruit participants from community partners to iteratively co-create two VR-games, based on: (a) a systematic review of existing VR games for people with dementia, (b) engagement with diverse experts (our knowledge users: older adults, care partners, and providers), and (c) evaluation of the ease-of-use and impact of the VR-games (e.g., enjoyment, mood, time spent in the activity by people with dementia).
Visit our Dynamic Website to see our work in progress, as we review relevant VR game applications...