The gadget that can restore joy for dementia patients

SMILING, giggling, singing and joyously telling stories are not things typically expected of people with dementia. Nor might you expect them to be using high-tech gadgets.

But that’s possible thanks to a special box that transports them back in time in 360-degree virtual reality. It’s all there in perfect detail: the fashion, decor, food and songs. It’s the ultimate reminiscence therapy — a research-proven way to reach out to people lost in the fog of dementia.

Normally, reminiscence therapy involves using prompts such as old photos or music to evoke memories and stimulate conversation. The principle is that recalling old memories can tap into their undamaged longer-term memory and prompt conversations that help them connect with others. This is said to help alleviate the anxiety that often haunts dementia patients. Reducing agitation can lower their need for sedatives that can cause trips and falls.Virtual reality takes the reminiscence therapy approach a step further because the experience is so immersive, transporting the user to a specific scenario — they can look up and down, from side to side, taking in all the action that is apparently happening around them.

The vivid sensory experience is thought to reap more benefits for patients.

Virtual reality uses computers to create a three-dimensional environment that mimics real life. This is relayed through projectors for patients to see. This device, called The Wayback, creates a virtual reality inside a box. First, a film is downloaded from the free Wayback application on to a smartphone, which displays it on screen in several different images. The phone is inserted at one end of a cardboard box (which can be bought for €1 on the internet).

Patients then peer into the box from one side and enter the virtual reality. Headphones provide the soundtrack. The Wayback’s first in what will become a series of virtual reality films is the Queen’s Coronation. The film was made last year by a small army of volunteers, from lowtech sewing circles to the visual-effects wizards at MPC, a company that worked on Harry Potter and The Jungle Book.

Co-creator Dan Cole, 43, an advertising copywriter, says: ‘Nearly all the volunteers had a personal link to dementia.’ He was inspired to start the project by his father, Terry, who died three years ago, aged 77.

‘When Dad started developing dementia, conversations became hard,’ says Dan. ‘One day, I took him for a drive in Camden, where he grew up, and his memories flooded back. Suddenly, the conversation flowed again.’

The first 11-minute film has been downloaded by 2,000 people and around 500 nursing homes and carers in Britain have the viewing boxes.

There are no clinical studies of virtual reality reminiscence therapy yet, but last month, the highly respected research body Cochrane published an analysis of the effects of low-tech reminiscence approaches with photos and music, using data of more than 1,900 dementia patients. It concluded that it has positive effects on quality of life, cognition, communication and mood, though work is needed to establish the best ways to deliver the therapy.