“New technologies such as virtual reality have the potential to improve aged care, however there remains a widespread lack of uptake in aged care settings.”
Professor Raelene Wilding has published new research exploring the introduction of virtual reality technology in aged care facilities.
“Rather than assuming that older people and aged care staff are technophobes, we wanted to understand the obstacles they might encounter when trying to introduce new technologies,” Professor Wilding explains.
The study documented the experiences of aged care staff when introducing virtual reality – including the challenges and benefits – as well as any adaptations that were needed to accommodate the new technology.
“We found that older adults and aged care staff were enthusiastic about introducing virtual reality into their daily lives. However, they encountered several obstacles in the implementation.”
“It became clear that the low uptake of new technologies is not because older adults or their carers are technophobes. Rather, they have decided to spend their valuable time on caring for each other instead of caring for time-greedy technological devices and tools.”
Professor Wilding says that technology developers and providers need to rethink what they are developing and why.
“It might be useful for developers to start spending more time thinking about how to make sure that new technologies are able to 'self-care'.”
The findings of Dr Wilding’s research have implications for all technological tools.
“Our aim is to further explore what factors help to ensure that technologies support care, rather than shifting caring time away from people.”
