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One new virtual reality project aims to help people who have overdosed to receive immediate treatment, while another is delivering child protection training to social care professionals
“I think the training videos are invaluable for newly qualified social workers and students, especially if they haven’t had a lot of experience with challenging behaviours or language." Vijay Patel, head of safeguarding, Social Care Institute for Excellence
The government is hoping to save thousands of lives through the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable technology designed to reduce the number of drug deaths.
Projects across the UK will receive £12m of government money to research technology that can support people with addictions.
One of the chosen projects, PneumoWave ALERT, combines a chest-worn sensor that monitors breathing to detect if a person may have taken an overdose. A linked mobile device then sends out an immediate alert to nearby antidote carriers and emergency services, helping people receive potentially life-saving treatment as soon as possible.
Another study will look at using virtual reality (VR) to help people overcome their triggers for cocaine addiction. Watch-type devices will measure physical changes in a person’s body, to determine which cues in their environment lead to a drug craving.
VR will then be used to create realistic situations to repeatedly expose people to triggers in a safe environment. Previous research shows that cue exposure treatment (CET) can significantly reduce the level of craving and relapse among alcoholics, but it has not yet been fully explored for people experiencing a cocaine addiction until now.
Andrew Gwynne, the minister for public health and prevention, said: “Drug addiction devastates lives and rips apart families, and this government is committed to gripping this problem. We’re determined to harness the full potential of cutting-edge technology to save thousands of lives across the country. I want the UK to lead the way in championing innovation to end the harmful effects of addiction.”
The research is being funded through the Addiction Healthcare Goals programme, run by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS). Eight organisations, between them running 11 projects, will receive a share of the £12m funding.
The funding will also support research to improve the accessibility of the life-saving drug naloxone. Naloxone rapidly reverses heroin and opioid overdose but is typically available as an injection or nasal spray, which cannot always be used in time. King’s College London is looking into naloxone wafers which melt in the mouth and provide rapid access to this emergency medicine and can fit easily in a wallet or purse.
Demonstrating the versatility of VR, another project is to use the technology to provide virtual child protection training for social care professionals.
The immersive experience, known as research informed virtual relationship-based practice training (RIVRT), will be provided by the University of Birmingham and Sandwell Children’s Trust (SCT) in partnership with Cornerstone VR.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham and SCT developed the RIVRT solution after two years of ethnographic research following social workers on home visits, in office environments and during face-to-face supervision.
Training participants wear VR headsets to experience a social worker’s 11-month journey with a fictional family, which mirrors real-world child protection cases.
The seven-module training package allows trainees to virtually observe body language, tone, and relational approaches, so they can develop skills to navigate complex situations effectively.
Dr Tarsem Singh Cooner, associate professor of social work at the University of Birmingham, said that the goal was to “bring this research-driven training to professionals, empowering them to create positive impacts in the lives of the children and families they support.”
Vijay Patel, head of safeguarding at the Social Care Institute for Excellence said: “I think the training videos are invaluable for newly qualified social workers and students, especially if they haven’t had a lot of experience with challenging behaviours or language.
“It’s also a very good tool for experienced social workers, because we can always learn and seeing somebody else might make you say, ‘oh hang on, I do that’, or ‘hang on, I should be doing that’. I think it can be helpful for any practitioner at any point in their career.”
FCC Insight
It’s exciting to see virtual reality technology being used in such innovative ways in health and care. The idea of using VR to create immersive scenarios that can help addicts manage their triggers is a natural successor to previous projects in which VR has helped people overcome phobias through simulated situations. The new VR application being used to train social care workers is a very different, but equally valuable, use of the technology, enabling newly-qualified social workers to experience in a safe environment situations that they are likely to encounter in practice.