Question: how do you think virtual reality could help young peoples mental health?

Farah Elahi answered on 13 Jun 2019:

Hi! Well virtual reality can be used to give psychological therapy treatments to people with various mental health conditions. You see a lot of people struggle to socialise with others because of social anxiety and so on, so them attending therapy in a hospital for example is difficult for them. It may also be far away and if they don’t have access to a car or good transport links, they may not be able to commit to therapy – and therapy is a big commitment ! so technology can be used to provide therapy to people so they don’t have to leave their homes! That’s what I’m doing with virtual reality specifically. So in 1 of my treatments, people were able to log into their computers at home, pick an avatar and log into a virtual world (which is free to use and can be accessed online). They then get transported into this world and receive therapy from an avatar therapist (who is a real person behind the screen). They can complete tasks, talk about their issues (using a voice chat option) and get guidance and support 🙂 I found that the treatment did work and the people who completed it were very happy with the results. This is just 1 example of a virtual reality treatment and there are a lot of others out there too – some treatments have people wear actual headsets so they can get immersed into another world. So for example if someone is struggling to go to the high street because it’s too busy and they get scared, a therapist will ask them to put on a headset which is connected to a 360 degree video – so the person feels like they are actually at the high street! The therapist can then work with them to reduce their nerves and anxiety so that one day they can go to the high street and interact with others there for real! I hope this helps.