HJNO Jan/Feb 2022

50 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS COLUMN  SENIOR HEALTH IN LESS THAN an hour, I witnessed a resi- dent of St. Anna’s at Lambeth House visit the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains, explore a gorilla commune in an African forest and watch adorable puppies frolic at her feet all without ever leaving the room or her chair. Her experience was made available through a program at St. Anna’s featuring virtual reality (VR). The headset she wore allowed 360-degree access to absolute wonder, immersing her in a vir- tual environment with each and every turn of her head. Her reaction — total awe. VR has found a permanent place at St. Anna’s VIRTUAL REALITY in Long-term Care Settings where the program initially gained trac- tion after travel and visitation restrictions arose amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now residents visit virtual museums, travel to faraway places, learn about other cultures and share experiences without ever leav- ing the community — the walls there now exponentially expanded. VR is not new technology, of course. To- day’s virtual reality was born from ideas that date as far back as the 1800s. Over a hundred years later in the 1980s, the concept really took flight when computer scientist and founder of VR, Jaron Lanier, developed and expanded devices and ap- plications to support the technology, and millennial gamers have used it for some time. Most recently, however, VR has found its way to long-term care communities across the United States. While usage of the technology soared during the pandemic, research related to its impact on seniors started a few years ago. In 2018, the Age Lab at MIT conduct- ed research to study its impact on older adults’ well-being. The data primarily fo- cused on seniors living in assisted living communities. The findings showed there Pictured Meredith Fortmayer, activities coordinator with St. Anna’s resident