Barry Pendergast shared his use of virtual reality to improve physical and mental health during an Older Adults Teleconference on Oct. 28.
Pendergast, an 83-year-old retired architect believes that technology has the potential to help older adults who are looking for a way to be motivated, participate in activities, and connect socially with others across the world.
“In 2018, I was at a church gathering and someone from the dementia community started talking about the challenge of dementia, how do people perceive them, how do they perceive doing simple everyday things,” Pendergast said.
Adding, “It opened my eyes that maybe virtual reality could help those people, and it was the start of using virtual reality with dementia.”
Pendergast has seen an increasing number of senior care facilities introduce forms of virtual reality and see benefits for maintaining a healthy cognitive state.
Researchers are also seeing positive results in helping dementia patients improve relationships with family and regain important memories.
“Seniors more and more are getting used to using this kind of technology. They aren’t frighted by it and are able to have really useful discussions on topics of almost every kind,” Pendergast said.
“Often, we assume people can’t do something, but if you put them in a teaching environment, they are relaxed. Combining 3D imagery with audio, it’s incredibly stimulating to people with dementia,” he said.
Pendergast is now working towards developing customized applications for individuals and their family’s experiencing dementia.
“We can custom design the system so they can interact with their families, and we can bring back family history,” Pendergast said.
“The cost of not dealing with it is significant, if I can make a plea really for all of us is to start showing care for those around us who are suffering from this,” he added. “We are facing a serious challenge; this is a societal challenge that we have to try and do something.
I’m trying to do my part by customizing applications that can be used for them because we have to find solutions.”
