Virtual reality set to give carers more empathy

LONDON: Rural care workers are leading the world in using a novel virtual reality program that builds empathy.

The workers are part of a pilot study led La Trobe University that found virtual reality (VR) gives them unique insights into the daily lives of their disability clients.

The custom-built program was co-designed and evaluated by a team led by Irene Blackberry, director of La Trobe’s John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research in Wodonga. The team worked with Albury disability service provider Mercy Connect and a software development team based at Valley General Hospital in Brisbane.

Professor Blackberry said the VR program would change the way some disability support workers were trained because it was affordable, flexible and could be used anywhere.

The study involved new staff to Mercy Connect’s community disability service as part of their orientation. The team gave them access to a custom VR program called IMercyVE for a first-person virtual experience of having an intellectual disability.

“Empathy is difficult to teach,” Professor Blackberry says. “You can tell people about it, but until you actually experience it yourself it is not something that can be taught.

“We also know it is an asset to have that lived experience to inform how you can deliver better care for a person with a disability.

“This lived experience is important … but it is not always possible for everyone to have that, especially those new to the industry.”

Professor Blackberry says when a care worker dons the headset and experiences a disability, it is an eye opener.

“We have a lot of assumptions about people with disabilities,” she said. “It is different when you experience it.

“When you put this headset on … it gives a very different perspective.”

The results of the study were published in the international Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities and found the program could be used as a remotely delivered and flexible staff training module.

Professor Blackberry said this was particularly useful for rural workers and during pandemics.

“Our paper was done during Covid when it was difficult for regional towns to send people out to have training and we needed to find ways to be more flexible,” she said.

“We can train people remotely, up to a point, but it needs to be that combination of training with practical experience.”

Almost 4.4 million Australians live with disability and Professor Blackberry said being a support worker required attributes such as patience, honesty and compassion, as well as skills in first aid, administration, information technology and teamwork, the ability to provide personal care and problem-solve.

She said Mercy Connect commissioned Valley General Hospital to design the program to improve their staff’s awareness and insight into the experience of living with intellectual disability.

A bigger study was now needed and the next steps could include investigation of areas such as aged care or medical uses such as helping to distract people who had a fear of needles.