Ambitious project wins award for local mental health services

The project which involves using Virtual Reality videos could prevent anxiety and reduce distress for students and their families.

Senior Occupational Therapists, Fiona Mulvey & Niamh Morrin from the Galway/Roscommon Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service have won the Healthtech Collaboration Award for their work on the project.

A group of teenagers volunteered to co-create Virtual Reality (VR) videos that could help anxious students in summer 2020 after experiencing school anxiety. VR was chosen because of its appeal to young people, the promising results from research with adults and the increased affordability of VR headsets.

The team from the Galway/Roscommon CAMHS created a character called Dala, invented a backstory and spent weeks answering the question... ‘how does anxious Dala get to school?’ This gave them an insight into school anxiety, finding that anxiety around friendships, fitting in, being judged or embarrassed were the biggest issues for young people. This formed the basis for the VR design which recreates the external world of school.

When the user puts on the VR headset, they are immersed in Dala's mind and body as they respond to anxiety in positive and negative ways. The simulated exposure to an anxiety inducing situation helps to reduce the amount of fear felt by the person.

The results from prototype testing with adolescents were very positive as 100% believed it could help school anxiety and 45% reported a reduction in anxiety while using the VR.

The Dala Workbook and the VR can now be used by staff throughout CAMHS. There are further plans to make the videos available in App Lab for easier downloading and to slightly modify the videos for primary school children.

It is hoped that all schools and Primary Care Centres will have access to the VR for students in the near future.