Virtual Games & Psychogeriatric Care
Apr 29 - by Aleida
Earlier I wrote about Adults & Wii. The Wii is not just a kid’s toy, but adult people also enjoy playing with it. I think the Nintendo Wii is very open to ‘family play’ – mom, dad & kids can game together. However the Wii is also used in care homes for the elderly (?) But the Wii is not always the perfect game console to keep elderly active…
I came across a very interesting article in De Pers on Monday April 27, 2009. The article is about using virtual reality games to aid revalidation of psychogeriatric patients. I never heard of the textbook word ‘psychogeriatric’, but it focuses on the mental health of elderly people e.g. Alzheimer Disease. I added a snapshot of the article below, the title says “Mister Berens cleverly avoids dog poo.”
In the article it is not the Wii that is used, but the SilverFit system. It is a 3D rendering system with a computer, a 3D camera and a screen. The journalist speaks with Van Der Keur who works at a care home in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. One of her patients sits in a wheelchair and has difficulties reaching for a cup of coffee on a table. When using the SilverFit system he is able to reach much further than he normally does. “That’s almost a miracle” Van Der Keur says. The SilverFit system is able to fit to the patient needs, for example if a person isn’t able to see well it is possible to strip the games from visual cues.
Why is it so different from using the Wii? Not only does it use a 3D camera, Van Der Keur makes some interesting remarks… The Wii is much more confronting for elderly people who are less mobile. When people would play Wii tennis they will be confronted with the fact they are less mobile and could get frustrated. The games are visual based and ‘without language’, not native elderly who do not speak the Dutch language or aren’t able to read Dutch would otherwise be excluded. This way the games have a low entry level.
You can read the full article in the .pdf archived issue of De Pers, the article can be found on page 15. Please note: the article is written in Dutch.
Thoughts
I never really thought about using the Wii could be frustrating for elderly people. When Van De Keuren mentioned this it really got me thinking. I thought of my own grandmother who is 90 years old. Fortunately she is not a psychogeriatric patient, but she is less mobile. At times she does express her frustration with getting older. My grandmother was born in Indonesia and even though she is very proficient in Dutch, now that she is getting older she reverts back to speaking Bahasa Indonesia most of the time. In that way I recognized the (possible) frustrations Van De Keuren mentioned.
February 2, 20101:41 am
http://www.elocutio.nu/2010/02/01/archived/
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