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Description
We intend to expand the APO Finance business by offering VR spectacles with software to support therapies for stress and depression. The spectacles help improve mental health thanks to software that combines psychological therapy and diagnostics in virtual reality, and enables a therapist to control the process of treatment. Our platform will include therapeutic exercises at several levels of difficulty to support treatment of various emotional disorders. The product will be dedicated to individual customers, mainly seniors, as well as to mental health facilities, psychologists, diagnostic and medical therapy centers and care centres.
The project will be implemented in partnership with a Norwegian mentor, Baerum International Hub AS. Our partner has extensive expertise in the development of businesses, including startups. Mentoring will concern the preparation of a business plan and sales, promotion and advertising strategies, as well as building partnerships with public and private sectors.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to research, develop and implement an innovative method of psychotherapy with virtual reality glasses and a dedicated software platform providing exercises supporting the process of therapy.
The software of virtual glasses with therapeutic games was intended to support psychotherapists and occupational therapists in traditional therapy for stress and depression.
Research was to confirm the effectiveness of vr glasses use with therapeutic games in the area of emotional health treatment for patients. It was also intended to confirm the thesis of the effectiveness of using virtual reality-created images and tasks based on traditional occupational therapies with goggles in the process of treating stress and depression. The aim was to answer the questions whether a form of isolating the patient from environmental stimuli by wearing vr goggles is acceptable to the patient and provides a sense of comfort, whether isolation affects the rate of change of emotional states, whether the relaxation mechanism learned in virtual reality allows the formation of a habit of relieving emotional tensions and whether this habit becomes permanent. The idea was to try to adapt proven traditional therapeutic methods in a multimedia environment resulting in the implementation of an innovative therapy method with the support of therapeutic games with the use of vr glasses.
The possibility to use the glasses at home and in the therapist''s office and to observe the patient''s modus operandi through the therapist''s panel - this is how the basic functionality of the virtual glasses software to support traditional therapy for coping with stress and depression was defined.
The basis for the project was the need to meet the global mental health problem and market expectations in terms of accessibility for therapists, diversification of methods of managing stress and depression and equal access to therapy at home and in the office for different patient groups, including older people.
The number of individuals, especially the elderly, who fail to manage stress and depression is increasing. The project proposal was submitted before the pandemic, when many people felt the problem of undertaking a full therapeutic collaboration with a specialist in the field and interdisciplinary therapeutic support was in high demand. Even leaving the house became a problem for people not being able to cope with stress and depression. This topic affected and affects all social and age groups. There are still many barriers to maintaining optimal mental health. The pessimism that often accompanies people today, the feeling of loneliness, powerlessness, pain, nervousness, lack of understanding - are limiting the establishment and maintenance of close relationships. This creates a sense of helplessness and often contributes to depressive symptoms and a reduced quality of life. In the fast-paced, demanding world we live in today, patients do not have the patience or conviction for the legitimacy of therapy, they lack a sense of security, and after a few visits with a psychotherapist, they drop out of further appointments or look for other, often inferior ways of dealing with their emotions.
Expectations for the effects of psychological treatment are now very high, and the stress and depression afflicting the modern world is a global problem. Mental health priorities for the coming years still include: improving the mental health of the general population by promoting healthy lifestyles, building and protecting the mental health of children and adolescents, prevention and early detection of depression and behavioural disorders that can lead to mental disorders, treatment of addictions or their symptoms, strengthening the mental health of working people in terms of coping with stress, prevention and early detection of depression and work-life balance skills, strengthening the mental health of people at risk of depression and suicide, keeping seniors active. The aim is that our project, irrespective of economic objectives, could support the realisation of this improvement.
As a result of the task of working on the improvement of the software supporting the therapeutic processes, we intended to diversify our activities and, based on our experience gathered so far, to build a new sales direction for a proven tool - meeting market expectations regarding the global demand for better management of stress and depression.
We had the three main activities and milestones in our project. Mentoring, industrial and development work. Advisory services in the form of mentoring from the Norwegian partner allowed the project to benefit from the knowledge and extensive experience of professionals and helped key people involved in the project. Under the guidance of the mentor, a sales strategy will be developed, as well as an information and promotion strategy for the project. At the industrial stage, the team developed a methodology for conducting research and selected therapeutic methods suitable for transfer to the world of virtual reality. We have established cooperation with the IT team, a manufacturer of virtual reality technology to develop our own modules for therapeutic exercises, and with a team of psychologists and a professor to determine the possibility of adapting the developed scenes, tasks and therapeutic methods to computer programs. The technical parameters of the equipment needed for the project and the purchase of this equipment were determined. Psychologists supported the team substantively in the area of effective implementation of therapeutic methods for the treatment of emotional disorders. A tool was created to verify the therapeutic needs using technically enhanced software for virtual glasses. This was followed by a study of the visual and audio layers of the vr application modules, in order to determine the right image for exercise. A team of computer scientists and psychologists worked on the interface of the vr application, its functions and methods of navigating through it. Graphic elements for the virtual exercise spaces and sound samples ultimately used in the vr application were prepared. Subsequently, psychologists together with programmers conducted research on developing algorithms and methods for analyzing patients'' behavior during vr exercises and proposed ways for patients to move and make decisions during exercises. Tests for patients were developed to verify the effectiveness of carrying out therapy with the help of vr, substantive consultation of the tests was carried out by the professor. The industrial work was completed by testing the created prototype before making it available to real patients and tests (performed and reviewed by psychologists) under conditions simulating the target application. The development team, after implementing comments and modifications, performed a safety analysis of the application''s use and planned countermeasures. Thus, a vr application with therapeutic games based on chromotherapy, forest and art therapy was prepared for use in research with patients within the framework of a new therapeutic method.
During the development stage, testing of the vr application in real-world conditions took place. During this time, research tools were created to verify the patient''s condition, verifying the effectiveness of vr-assisted therapy, and after a pilot study of a selected group of patients, the professor supported the team in evaluating the pilot results. The usefulness of the emotional tension dysfunction workshop was evaluated, the lowering of emotional tension by wearing glasses that transported the patient into the virtual world, experiencing pleasant visual stimuli that provided positive emotions and redirected the patient''s attention from a negative mood to other positive emotions and work on himself. The analysis of the results of the study and the lessons learned allowed a positive conclusion of the work on the development and implementation of an innovative method of psychotherapy using virtual reality glasses with software and therapeutic games with exercises to support the course of therapy.
The project achieved its most important goal - increasing the chance of improving the quality of life by managing stress and depression, giving support to psychotherapists in the form of improved software for virtual reality glasses, by transferring chromotherapy, art therapy ,forest therapy to a virtual world that will help therapists work effectively on patients'' mental health. We combined the potential of occupational therapies with the potential of virtual reality, which activates a person''s imagination and inner resources. Isolation from problems and surroundings gives a chance through therapeutic games installed on virtual glasses to find strength, energy and inner resources within oneself and as a result brings the needed help in the healing process. In the project, proper research preceded by a pilot study included 160 people receiving psychotherapy, including 98 women and 62 men; a proper group of 80 people using vr glasses with therapeutic games and a control group of also 80 people using traditional therapy methods were selected; each person participated in several research experiments; 720 measurements were obtained from the study. In most cases, more than 70% of respondents in the relevant group showed that after virtual therapeutic games, there was a reduction in their somatic symptoms, an improvement in mood, a reduction in stress, a reduction in emotional tension and faster falling asleep; symptoms of improved mental health occurred in them to a greater extent than in patients who did not use vr glasses only used traditional forms of therapy. Statistical analysis of the study performed confirmed the effectiveness of using vr glasses with therapeutic games in the area of supporting patients'' emotional health treatment: patients experiencing somatic symptoms, stress were able to eliminate/minimize them using vr glasses with therapeutic games. The therapeutic games also improved mood and lowered heightened levels of emotional tension, and influenced patients to fall asleep faster. The study, which concluded with a final report in December 2023, showed that the use of vr glasses with therapeutic games can complement patients'' mental health treatment with an emotional aspect. Elements of chromotherapy, forest and art therapy in virtual reality can be a safe support in dealing with stress and depression and used complementarily in the treatment of nervous system disorders, in the prevention of falling asleep, as a way to relieve emotional tension in situations of emotional overload, in situations of excessive stress, such as before procedures, dental appointments, exams, etc., and as a support in medicine and rehabilitation.
Improved mental health can be experienced by all those in need with equal access to modern technology. We need support in dealing with our emotions everywhere, at work and at home. Help was and is especially needed by the elderly, who, according to studies, suffer the most from stress and depression, isolation and long waiting times to see a specialist. The beneficiaries of the created support are the elderly, who, according to studies, suffer the most from stress and depression, isolation and long waiting times to see a specialist. We hope to see an increase in the social activity of the senior group willing to support with effective therapy. Going with the trend of healthy lifestyle medicine, we want to commercialize our virtual reality goggles with improved software with therapeutic games and contribute to the widespread use of tools for dealing with stress and depression, to support the work of therapists, to provide better access to psychotherapists, to train staff to improve the efficiency of mental health professionals.
Summary of bilateral results
The project benefited from having a donor project partner primarily because of the partner''s experience and willingness to share knowledge. We received numerous tips and assistance in creating a sales strategy and an information and promotion strategy on the Norwegian market. The partner''s active participation contributed to improving our qualifications. We realized the importance of our resources and demand, we gained an additional knowledge base and support in implementing business ideas and goals. Thanks to this, we could count on full integration and use of this huge human capital that lies within our competences.The main results of cooperation with the Norwegian partner are the development of a sales strategy and an information and promotion strategy on the Norwegian market. The project partners have extensive experience in project management, change management, development and implementation projects. These are business-oriented professionals who are able to identify critical issues in order to develop innovative planning strategies. The meetings and cooperation we carried out during the project allow us to plan future development projects. We are at the stage of determining them.