Sarah Williams
Beaver Staff
The John M. Parrott Centre For The Aged has the ticket for travel abroad during the COVID-19 crisis. As part of an innovative pilot project, they’re sending residents around the world, thanks to virtual reality.
Candace McMullen, resident service coordinator along with program and outreach coordinator for the Lennox and Addington Libraries, Kate Wilson, spoke with the Beaver about the scope of the project and how residents are responding.
“It’s been a great reminiscing tool and also, with COVID-19, they can’t go anywhere so I thought this would be a valuable thing for them,” explained McMullen.
Apart from Hawaii, the Rockies and England, the residents have also ventured underwater.
One resident had always dreamed of driving a race car, so he was able to do so virtually.
“His dream was to drive a race car, so in virtual reality, he was basically in the driver’s seat,” said Wilson. “He got to realize his dream of driving a race car without going anywhere.”
Wilson added that she often employs the use of virtual reality tools in the library programming, so doing so at the long term care home just made sense.
“On Youtube there are several apps and tons of virtual reality programs and videos you can view,” said Wilson. “I basically googled it and pulled up different places. One gentleman said he’d always wanted to see the Rocky Mountains, so I accessed that virtual reality and it actually evoked a lot of past memories and things that he wasn’t thinking of, but that made him happy.”
The starting point for the trips began with figuring out what locations the residents loved to visit, or where they had always wanted to go.
“We just gathered up a few residents we knew would be receptive of the idea and it was a neat experience,” said McMullen. “We asked them where’s someplace you’ve wanted to go? Or where’s some place you’ve always wanted to go but have never been?”
Apart from being a reminiscing tool, the trips have enabled residents to “get their minds off of things” stated both McMullen and Wilson.
“We make sure they don’t get dizzy- it’s under five minutes and then we just let them direct the adventure,” said McMullen. “We want to make it a personalized experience, so it’s not just showing them a picture. We want them to make connections to it.
So far, they’ve taken groups of three to six residents on these virtual reality tours. There are, in total, 168 residents at the centre.
Despite the centre being on lock down for approximately 10 weeks so far, McMullen described the residents as doing well.
“Overall they’re doing really well. We’re keeping life as normal as possible. We have support form the library staff which has been a great help. We’re getting lots of one to one visits and extra programming, so they’re doing really well that way,” she said. “They just miss their families. We’ve initiated window visits and Kate has launched our zoom programming.”
In fact, it could be said that residents have embraced technology like never before.
“I’ve created a successful video chat program, pretty much on the half hour each day and we have actually connect with residents families all over the word- people they normally wouldn’t even get to see if the centre was open,” commented Wilson.