Q Exchange
Using Virtual Reality to improve Emotional Wellbeing in Young People
- Proposal
- 2024
Meet the team
Also:
- Michael McMullan, CAMHS Substance Use Practitioner
- Ciaran Morrissey, Lead Social Worker CAMHS and Autism Services
- Beth Major, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?
Young People struggling with their mental health have to negotiate a number of barriers when trying to access support and build skills to support their recovery:
· Systems – trying to access the right care at the right time.
· Environmental – they have to leave the safe haven of home and go somewhere unfamiliar to seek help.
· Interpersonal – they have to meet with professionals that they do not yet know or trust. This is particularly challenging for young people who are so anxious that they are shut down and isolated from the world.
· Psychological barrier – they may have little belief in their own capacity to cope, and little belief that someone else may be able to help.
We know that there are effective interventions available to help young people in distress. We are therefore tasked with finding solutions to help young people engage with our services and overcome the barriers holding them back.
What does your project aim to achieve?
Introduce VR technology to compliment current work in both CAMHS and ASD services. Young people have told us that this technology helps them to engage during individual and group therapy. We know that developing skills for managing anxiety is incredibly challenging for some young people, particularly if they have become very overwhelmed by the world and have a very avoidant way of coping. We would like to discover whether VR provides a lifeline for this hard to reach group.
We plan to introduce to VR to firstly help develop core emotional regulation skills and secondly support older teenagers who are struggling with debilitating anxiety preventing them from being able to tolerate being outside of their home.
Many of these young people do not believe that anything can help them. We know that this is not the case, but need to find innovative ways of overcoming this barrier.
How will the project be delivered?
The project team will work with colleagues from CAMHS/Autism services to identify young people that would benefit from VR. We would plan to advertise the availability of VR so that appropriate cases can be identified from existing caseloads. We already have multidisciplinary forums where patient’s needs and care plans are discussed.
VR equipment can be used during routine clinic appointments and home visits. We will ensure that both qualitative/quantitative outcomes are used to ascertain effectiveness of VR. We have a particular interest in coproduction and working with service users to make sure that VR helps patients to work towards their real-world goals.
There are two VR programmes that will be available – one helping to develop emotional regulation skills such as mindfulness and relaxation strategies. The second programme is designed to help hard-to-reach young people with high levels of anxiety who struggle to engage in activities outside of the home.
How is your project going to share learning?
We aim to deliver updates to the Q Community through updates to the online platform. We have already begun to promote the use of VR through local CAMHS services and our aim would be to promote this further through Southern Health and Social Care Trust as well as regional QI streams.
As Co-production with service users is key, we are engaging with formal groups of young people who represent service users and our aim is that they in turn will promote the use of VR within their own peer circles.
We will use existing learning opportunities such as Patient Safety meetings and learning events within CAMHS/Autism services to advertise the project and provide updates regarding how the project is progressing. We will work alongside our user group to determine the best way of presenting this information.
How you can contribute
- By being part of the Q community and sharing our project idea, we hope that we are able to gain new learning that can not only help us with our current project, but also throughout our entire service. We have already benefited from discussing VR with existing Q members and from the helpful comments and questions on this forum.
- We also hope that by sharing our project idea with the community, that it can inspire and produce development and improvement among other individuals and services, with the overarching aim to improve the wider healthcare system and care outcomes of the people using our services.
- We would also be open to supporting other Q members with their project ideas.
Plan timeline
| 7 Jan 2024 | Project Team Established |
|---|---|
| 4 Feb 2024 | Meet with a number of Virtual Reality Providers |
| 10 Mar 2024 | Pilot VR equipment to establish acceptability and efficacy in CAMHS |
| 20 Mar 2024 | Q Exchange Application submission |
| 24 Mar 2024 | Meet with Service User Group |
| 7 Jul 2024 | Confirm specifications of equipment with technology providers |
| 11 Aug 2024 | Training, SOP's to be developed alongside service user group |
| 4 Sep 2024 | Commence roll out to clinics across the Trust |
| 2 Dec 2024 | Project Team to begin PDSA cycles every three months |
| 9 Dec 2024 | Project team review usage/outcome data every three months |
| 16 Dec 2024 | Meet with service user group to review progress every 3months |
| 1 Apr 2025 | Present progress update to whole service learning workshops every 6months. |
| 2 Jun 2026 | Final outcomes review by Project Team and Service User Group |
| 30 Jun 2026 | Consider impact of project and seek opportunities to disseminate learning |
Comments
Sue Lacey Bryant 13 Mar 2024
Do taker a look back at the report which accompanied the Topol review.
See https://topol.hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/HEE-Topol-Review-Mental-health-paper.pdf
Michael McMullan 19 Mar 2024
Hi Sue,
Many thanks for sharing this very informative and relevant report to support our project, which recognises the huge positive impact that virtual reality can have on reducing mental health problems in both young people and the adult population.
Best Wishes
Michael
Dawn Mackin 13 Mar 2024
I think this is a great idea - with the scale of increasing mental health issues in young people trying to deal with all the challenges thrown at them- this type of technology can be fun but with good mental health outcomes
great to see co-production with young people and good feedback so far !
I wish you well with this project
Michael McMullan 19 Mar 2024
Hi Dawn,
Thank you for taking the time to comment on our project idea and for your well wishes.
We do hope that we can continue to provide this service to young people using CAMHS and continue to see the positive outcomes that it has been producing so far.
Best Wishes
Michael
Paul Murtagh 13 Mar 2024
Interesting idea. I heard of something similar being done in dentistry to help calm anxious children during dental surgery.
Will you be developing the program yourselves or is it off the shelf?
Which VR platform do you intent to use?
With the growth of VR at home, do you see things as something that could be made available for self care following the introduction through CAMHS?
Michael McMullan 19 Mar 2024
Thank you very much for your comment and very good questions.
Yes, there are similar projects being utilised throughout different children services aiming to reduce anxiety and distress in procedures including MRI, venepuncture and dentistry procedures, which have been producing great outcomes for the young people and their families and reducing waiting times for these procedures that may have been requiring aesthetic to manage the young person’s distress and anxiety.
We currently are running a trial of an ‘off the shelf’ mindfulness based VR programme with Rescape Health, which is aimed at supporting young people to learn and strengthen new and existing skills to help reduce levels of stress and anxiety. We also hope that practicing mindfulness relaxation in a calming virtual setting can promote the value of self-practice and encourage the young person to utilise mindful relaxation techniques in their own time to support longer term emotional regulation and reduction in stress and anxiety.
However, we have a longer-term goal to develop our own bespoke programme that would use real local landmarks in the immersive experience targeting those young people who struggle to engage with a range of supports including school, health and Social Services.
With the field of virtual reality rapidly growing and developing, we do see there being potential future opportunities to deploy similar projects for young people to utilise at home, for those who have used VR through CAMHS and Autism Services and have recognised the long-term benefits of this practise.
Kind Regards
Michael
Laura Spiers 5 Mar 2024
What a great idea, a blend of digital innovation and service specific knowledge to provide meaningful support to service users. We have already seen great benefits in the use of VR in reducing procedural related anxiety for children and young people within our acute settings. This has such far reaching potential to really improve the experience, and therapeutic outcomes for children and young people with neurodiversity.
Best of luck with the project
Michael McMullan 8 Mar 2024
Hi Laura,
Thank you very much for your comment and well wishes. I apologise for the delay in responding to you.
We have been able to get an insight in the benefits that the use of VR has had in both Children and Young People Services and adults services. We have also been able to see first-hand the subjective and objective emotional well-being benefits that using mindful relaxation using virtual reality headsets can have for both the young person and their parent/guardian.
I hope this answers your query and please feel free to make further comments.
Best Wishes
Michael
Nichola Tally 5 Mar 2024
Will young people use headsets in clinic setting only?
Michael McMullan 8 Mar 2024
Hi Nichola,
Just an additional point to your question.
I think the facilitated use in clinic means we can help the young person think about how to do relaxation back in the real world, rather than ultimately relying on technology.
Kind Regards
Michael
Michael McMullan 8 Mar 2024
Hi Nichola,
Thank you very much for your comment and apologies for the delay in response.
At present the project will only be supported within the clinical setting.
We have found through using the trial headset with the young people that being in a clinical setting offers the opportunity for further discussion on the benefits of mindful relaxation and the link between practicing these skills and reduced levels of stress and anxiety.
I hope this answers your query and please feel free to make further comments.
Kind Regards
Michael
Jacqueline Morton 1 Mar 2024
Have you sought out other teams who have successfully used VR headsets to relieve anxiety?
What approaches will you use to collect qualitative data from young people and their carers?
Michael McMullan 8 Mar 2024
Hi Jacqueline,
Thank you very much for your comments and apologies for the delay in response.
We have met with a team within Children and Young People Services who use Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets to help reduce anxiety in young people who are attending clinics for procedures including MRI scans and venepuncture. The outcomes of this project have produced significant positives outcomes for these young people and reduced levels of distress and anxiety in the young people and their families.
We have also met with another team who use VR with family members of people with visual impairment. It places them in a virtual setting that can be adjusted to demonstrate different types of visual impairments and offers an understanding of the potential impact of this impairment on the individuals emotional and mental well-being.
We currently have secured a 12 week trial period for a VR headset with built in mindful relaxation programmes that is controlled by a tablet. This enabled us to set customisable service user experience data collection, which records on a rating scale how relaxed the young person feels before and after using the relaxation programme. The data collection also allows for the young person and their parent/guardian to provide written feedback on the experience and how beneficial they feel it would be to have greater access to VR in CAMHS.
So far we have received some fantastic feedback reporting hugely positive experiences, as well has significant increases in how relaxed the young person has felt before and after use.
I hope this answers your queries and please feel free to make further comments.
Kind Regards
Michael
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