Adults see world through a child’s eyes using virtual reality

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Spotted: UK-based Cornerstone is piloting a programme that gives adults a virtual experience of the abuse and stress a child in the social care system may have faced. The programme, known as Cornerstone Partnership’s Virtual Reality, is as engaging as a virtual reality game. Yet instead of the thrill of driving a race car or battling space aliens, viewers are subjected to domestic violence. Cornerstone says it’s the first of its kind.

The point is to improve children’s lives. Cornerstone says the programme helps people who interact with children in care — social workers, judges, teachers, and mental health professionals — develop a deeper understanding and empathy for what some of these children have been through.

Nine out of ten of the care professionals who piloted the system said it would improve their interactions with children. An equal number felt it would make adoptions more successful. Prospective adoptee parents also use the programme.

Takeaway: Cornerstone’s programme uses virtual reality (VR) to do a lot of good. VR has been shown to increase people’s empathy and promote better understanding faster than other methods. This is important. The number of vulnerable children in need of foster care in the UK is increasing, while the number of approved adoptive families has decreased over the past three years. Tech like this could help improve these statistics. The use of technical innovations in the public sector is growing overall. A care home in Sussex, England is using VR with dementia patients to take them “scuba diving” and on “safari”. Scientists at Nottingham Trent University have used VR to help people with speech impediments. And researchers at Duke University have successfully used VR to help paraplegic patients regain some mobility.

Website: www.thecornerstonepartnership.com
Contact: www.twitter.com/cornerstone_vr

Published in: January 2019

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