Relias Shares Free Virtual Reality Course To Promote Empathy for Dementia Sufferers

CARY, NC, June 7, 2018 – Relias, a trusted partner focused on reducing variation in care for more than 7,000 clients around the world and across the continuum of healthcare, today announced that access to A Day in the Life of Henry: A Dementia Experience, would be made available to anyone free of charge. The course, which is designed to be experienced in a Virtual Reality environment, creates an immersive opportunity for learners to feel firsthand what it’s like to live with dementia. Caregivers interested in the course can access it for free from Relias via this link, where the course can be downloaded in either Virtual Reality format, or for a computer desktop version which provides a 360° experience. Those interested in the Virtual Reality version, can acquire a VR viewer, often for under $10, via Google Cardboard.

A Day in the Life of Henry provides professionals across the healthcare continuum who care for people with dementia a new perspective, opening up training in a manner that facilitates new answers to questions such as: What is life really like for someone with dementia? How do they perceive their environment? How do interactions with caregivers affect their reactions? This course helps learners experience this reality, even briefly, allowing them to better understand the importance of their actions.

“One of the challenges healthcare professionals face is understanding how patients feel, and understanding the reality in which patients with dementia live, and its impact on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors,” explained Ben Johnson, Chief Product Officer at Relias. “Experiencing this reality, even vicariously and for a short time through this course, helps us understand the importance of our interventions, no matter how minor they may seem.”

More powerful than traditional point-of-view training videos, VR allows viewers to personally understand what the patient is experiencing. During and after the VR experience, learners report a variety of feelings – anger, sadness, compassion. Most importantly, they come away motivated to improve caregiver interactions. Creating positive behavior change is the goal of all Relias training, and this VR experience provokes meaningful introspection and discussions on improving the quality of patients’ lives.

The course, designed by Jennifer Burks, R.N, M.S.N., and Jennifer Moore, RN-BC, DNS-CT, CDP, offers CE credit for professional caregivers, but is ideal for anyone who has contact with a person suffering from dementia.