Project Description

Virtual_Decisions: IDENTITY is an award-winning virtual reality (VR) experience used by CAMHS practitioners as a healthcare pre-assessment tool for children and young people (CYP) referred into their service.

The VR experience, commissioned by Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and developed in 2022-23 by West Midlands-based creative ed-tech company Virtual Decisions, was developed based on Community Theatre principles (Boal, 1993) and grassroots consultations with young people.

The ‘choose-your-own-path’ VR experience immerses the user in a virtual ‘youth centre’ scenario, providing context and privacy to answer potentially sensitive screening questions (e.g. mental health, anger/behaviour management, sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, substance use, disordered eating). Responses are recorded on the headset, synched with NHS data management platform RIO and used by practitioners to create a care plan. This can include structured support sessions exploring particular issues – portrayed by different characters from the VR – that the young person resonated with.

This innovative, youth-relevant assessment tool has received positive early feedback from practitioners. However, to fully understand its clinical impact, we need to evaluate how effectively it supports mental health assessment and care. This PhD project will use mixed methods to explore how healthcare pre-assessment is experienced and impacted through use of IDENTITY. This will be explored qualitatively from the perspectives of young people and practitioners, and quantitatively in terms of agreement and adherence to a care plan.

Ultimately, this will yield valuable insights on how the combination of patient public involvement and engagement (PPI/E) and cutting-edge immersive VR-tech can be harnessed to improve identification and support for CYP mental health and wellbeing.