Mental Health Resiliency Video Recap

On April 21st, WXR hosted a panel of researchers and entrepreneurs working at the intersection of immersive technology and mental health. Their collective knowledge and practical advice would be relevant at any time, and is particularly salient as society grapples with the anxiety that the pandemic is causing.

In case you missed it, here are some highlights.

Sarah Hill

Sarah Hill is the Founder & CEO of Healium, a virtual and augmented reality tool for anxiety powered by the user's own brainwaves and heart rate.

“We know, not only through our own peer-reviewed research, but from the 800 studies on the therapeutic uses of virtual and augmented reality, that VR has the ability to quickly downshift the nervous system.”

“Before Covid, when it came to stress management, you might have thought of VR/AR of something nice to have…post Covid, people are realizing that this is hygiene. Much like you wash your hands, you need to wash your brain.”

“If there’s any good that’s come out of [the pandemic], it’s that people are realizing that mental health does affect your physical health.”

Skip Rizzo

Skip Rizzo is the Director of the Medical Virtual Reality Lab at USC, where he’s been researching clinical applications for VR and AR since 1995. His work has spanned PTSD treatment and prevention, autism, physical and occupational therapy, cognitive assessment and virtual humans

“With Covid, we’re anticipating a similar kind of urgency [in regard to PTSD] to the problem that we faced in 2003-2004 with returning service members, but in this case it’s going to be healthcare workers: nurses, first responders, etc. We already know that those populations have higher suicide rates than the general population—particularly nurses, I was really shocked when I saw the empirical data on that. So, we really want to create better training and better treatment.”

“Part of what resilience involves is acknowledging that you’re facing adversity and learning ways to adapt to it. And so, without minimizing any of the suffering that any people are going through right now, when you can, look at the experience you’re going through as something you can carry over in a positive way. Learning about how you cope without having the physical interaction in ways you can still feeling connected, whether it’s an event like this or calling people that you’ve always been wanting to call, but you never had the time to call before. Take advantage of these moments, and look at it as moments of growth rather than of limitation.”

Nina Salomons

Nina Salomons is a filmmaker, diversity advocate and XR consultant . She has been working on a project using VR for training, calming, and behavioral improvement incentivization in prisons.

“89% of prisoners believed that virtual reality use reduced violence within the prison…definitely what we see with the younger generation of prisoners is that this is a great way to get them distracted.
Virtual reality has decreased thoughts of self-harm and suicide.
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“I’m also quite tired of all of these Zoom calls and Google Hangouts…I feel definitely in virtual reality there’s these things like shaking someone’s hand, giving a high five or hug—things that humans need, and we can’t do that anymore. I think the physical touch is something that VR enhances that a video call really doesn’t.”

Sarah Ticho

Sarah has spent her career working across the interdisciplinary arts, academia, healthcare and immersive technology as a producer, curator, artist and researcher. She is the founder of Hatsumi, a research and design studio that works at the intersection of arts, health and immersive technology to develop experiences that challenge how we think and feel about the world and imagine the future of health and well-being. 

“The work that I’ve been doing is about translating an existing evidence-based arts and health research method and tool called body mapping. Body mapping was first created in the early 1980s in South Africa. It was a research project on how women living with HIV/AIDS could communicate their live experience, and naturally there was, and sadly still is, a lot of stigma around that, and so they began developing this method.”

“When you sit down with a doctor and they ask how you’re feeling, it can be really hard to articulate that with words. So with body mapping, you’re invited to thing, what does this look like in your body? What kind of colors or words or textures do you associate with this experience?”

“Imagine if people were able to illustrate their experience of Covid right now and how that’s affecting them personally, and being able to create a gallery of illustrations—a sort of terra cotta army of lived experience. We could see how people are responding and were there are commonalities in where people are feeling that anxiety and pain.”

Sharon Mozgai

Sharon Mozgai is the Associate Director of Medical VR at USC. She joined us via video and offered some great advice for those struggling with stress and uncertainty right now.

“What I think is central to each of our experiences is focusing on our unique strengths that have carried us each this far.”

“Islands of Competence are areas that have or had the potential to be sources of pride or accomplishment. Thinking of these islands of competence can shift your focus from weakness to strength, pessimism to optimism. Right now, when everything feels out of control, I believe one of the best things we can do to help ourselves, and to help the people around us, is to work to identify our own islands of competence. We all have intrinsic strength that we have called upon in the past, and we can call upon now.
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