Advancing Reminiscence Therapy through Virtual Reality Application to Promote the Social Connectedness of Persons with Dementia

Award Date: 2021

Project Lead(s): Winnie Sun, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ontario Tech University

Project Title: Advancing Reminiscence Therapy through Virtual Reality Application to Promote the Social Connectedness of Persons with Dementia

Reminiscence therapy is a multi-sensory treatment that uses a combination of sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound to help persons with dementia (PWD) remember events, people, and places from their lives. This project aims to develop an innovative framework prototype to improve the implementation of reminiscence therapy for PWD through customizable, immersive virtual reality experiences. The purpose of the study is to understand the effects of virtual reality over traditional forms of reminiscence therapy to help PWD recall memories from the past into present awareness to promote their social connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic.