Technodriven Treatments For Seniors Aid Cognition
Sixty years ago, Robert Butler was human. He was a New York gerontologist and psychiatrist who believed that older people could gain cognitive benefits for their current and future well-being by revisiting the past. Butler wrote about his ideas to the chagrin of his colleagues, who have rejected the idea of "life" in the past. Today, Butler's ideas are no longer rejected, but accepted: Memory Therapy is a modern version of the work of the founder of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.
Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for Why Survive? As an old man in America, he died in 2010. He believed in the "therapeutic value" of people going back in time. His theory is first dealt with in substance. Individuals or groups discuss important memories after viewing photos or listening to music.
Currently, memory therapy is widely practiced with the addition of virtual and augmented reality components and the use of four main ones: virtual world, immersion, sensory feedback, and interactive. The therapy goes by many other names, including immersive virtual reality therapy, sham therapy, virtual reality exposure therapy, and computer-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Under both names, the idea is the same. Patients perform special tasks tailored to specific diagnoses in digitally generated environments, often wearing earplugs or glasses.
Rendever, based in Somerville, Massachusetts. , and Plano, Texas-based MyndVR is one of six companies offering virtual reality memory therapy for seniors. Rendever is the largest company in the industry with approximately 450 locations in the United States, Canada and Australia.
“The impact of Rendever's technology is extraordinary,” said Rendever Vice President David Stoller. "Whether it's seeing a person with dementia smile for the first time because they've unlocked an otherwise forgotten memory, or hearing the excitement of participants after a competitive bike ride at RendeverFit, the Rendever community continues to prove that there is its endless moments and magic created by reality platform This Flaw.
The Rendever platform is part of Cypress Cove Care, a large community living in Fort Myers, the Vi Retirement Community of Bentley Village, and Terracina Health and Reification's Gardens Transitional Care Center, both in Naples. The company's software is also used by many of the Volunteers of America affiliates in Fort Myers.
Harmonia the Club, a day care company for the elderly in Naples, uses virtual reality and augmented reality products from various companies with members of the club. Harmonia staff help club members ages 62-97 achieve consistent clinical benefits for a variety of medical conditions. Assisting PTSD victims and improving dementia clients' cognitive abilities and muscle control after stroke.
"The idea is to keep people cognitively and physically active," says Harmonia co-founder Peter Spisak. "When a club member is in the right group, it stimulates their brain and slows down the dementia process. If you spend all day here, you sleep better and eat better."
In some cases, caregivers have used virtual reality to mimic the experiences of dementia patients. This helps professionals to get a sense of how older people feel.
"When [club members] are in a group with like-minded peers, people really feel like they're part of something," says Spisak. "Of course, everyone is a little different, everyone is an individual. But in a group, people connect and become friends."
In recent years, field studies at MIT and the University of California, San Francisco have reported that older adults have "better perceptions of overall health" after using virtual reality.
An MIT study found that nearly 39% of group participants reported an improvement in their health after viewing vacation and travel photos in virtual reality. Only 14.3% of the same group said that their health improved after seeing the same images on television.
In a UCSF study, 48 adults with an average age of 68.7 years showed improved long-term memory after regularly playing a specially designed virtual reality game for a month. According to results published in the journal Nature, those who play the same game on a tablet do not improve their long-term memory.
"Some people can barely speak, but if you play the right music or sing or sing the right song, they come alive," says Spacek. "The long-term memory is still there and they can sing, but they may not have said a word in the chat. We have people here who went to the neurologist after a few months and had much better results."