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Virtual Reality Tour Allows You To Really Experience Dementia

A new experience can show you how scary life really feels for dementia patients.
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By 

Huff/Post 50 Editor, The Huffington Post

Imagine not only having trouble with your memory, but also facing changes in your vision and perception. That's exactly what many people living with dementia experience on a daily basis. In order to better understand what it's like, a new virtual reality tour has been created to give people a sense of what it's really like to live with the memory-robbing disease.

 

Geriatric specialist PK Beville has designed a "mobile virtual dementia tour" to allow people to literally walk in the shoes of dementia patients, to better understand their struggles. 

The system includes eyeglasses, headphones, gloves and special shoe insoles, all of which affect the senses. The aim is to mimic the sort of difficulty in communicating and confusion experienced by those with dementia. 

The company is hoping to take the experience all over the UK to raise awareness. 

"People experience absolutely everything that dementia sufferers go through," the company's managing director, Glenn Knight, told SWNS. “We put insoles into their shoes to represent peripheral neuropathy where the nerve endings die in your feet and in your hands."

Knight likened the experience to walking on a rocky beach without shoes on, causing you to shuffle your feet. The "tour" also makes simple tasks like grasping a teddy bear or buttoning one's shirt challenging, due to reduced peripheral vision, tingling gloves and constant white noise and other sounds in the ears. 

According to the Alzheimer's Society, people with dementia can experience vision changes, causing changed perception and difficulty identifying items. 

Dementia affects millions of people around the world, and the tour's creators hope it can help citizens and health professionals understand patients better. 

Just in September of last year, nursing students became the first in the UK to test the system and understand the frustrations that daily life can bring for people with dementia. 

h/t SWNS

Also on HuffPost:

10 Symptoms Of Alzheimer's
Finding it difficult to complete home tasks (01 of08)
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The Alzheimer's Association says that people who have the illness may find it difficult to complete daily tasks. These could range from cleaning to forgetting the rules of a game played regularly. (credit:Alexandra Grablewski via Getty Images)
Finding it hard to read and understand visual images(02 of08)
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People with the disease may find it hard to read or understand certain images, according to the Alzheimer's Association. They also may find it difficult to determine color or contrast, which may stop them from driving. (credit:Rob Lewine via Getty Images)
Misplacing things(03 of08)
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People with Alzheimer's may put items in unusual places. They may lose things and accuse others of stealing. This can become more and more frequent. (credit:ladi59 via Getty Images)
Confusing times and places(04 of08)
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People with Alzheimer's can lose track of time, dates and seasons. They may also lose track of where they are and how they got there. (credit:mediaphotos via Getty Images)
Having difficulty solving problems(05 of08)
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Sufferers may experience changes in their ability to follow a plan or work with numbers. They'll probably have trouble following a basic recipe or keeping track of monthly bills. They might find it difficult to concentrate and take much longer to do things than they did before. (credit:Martin Barraud via Getty Images)
Withdrawing from social activities(06 of08)
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People with Alzheimer's may remove themselves from social activities and abandon hobbies and other interests. (credit:Ryan McVay via Getty Images)
Experiencing mood changes(07 of08)
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The mood and personalities of people with Alzheimer's disease can change. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, at work, with friends or in places where they are out of their comfort zone. (credit:The Welfare & Medical Care via Getty Images)
Struggling with decreased or poor judgment(08 of08)
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People with Alzheimer's may have poor judgment, according to the Alzheimer's Association. This can include confusion over how much money they should spend. They may also pay less attention to grooming and cleaning themselves regularly. (credit:Martin Moos via Getty Images)

 

 

 

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