£4m for VR treatment in NHS mental health services

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is leading a £4 million project to enable state-of-the-art psychological therapy to be delivered via virtual reality in the NHS.

The £4 million award from the National Institute of Health Research will enhance the work of a VR project, in which a virtual coach takes patients into computer-generated simulations of the situations they find troubling, helping them practise techniques to overcome their difficulties.

There are three main stages to the project: a design phase to ensure the VR treatment is simple to use, engaging, and right for patient needs; a large multi-centre clinical trial in NHS trusts across the country, to demonstrate the benefits of the VR treatment; and making a roadmap to roll out the treatment across the NHS.

Professor Daniel Freeman, who will lead the project, said: “Our project will see one of the most exciting and powerful new technologies implemented in the NHS for the first time. Virtual reality treatment can help patients transform their lives. When people put on our headsets, a virtual coach takes them into computer-generated simulations of the situations they find troubling.

“Our new treatment is automated – the virtual coach leads the therapy – and it uses inexpensive VR kit, so it has the potential for widespread use in the NHS. We’re inspired by the opportunity VR provides to increase dramatically the number of people who can access the most effective psychological therapies. Realising this ambition will require much work, but our amazing team of patients, NHS staff, researchers, and designers has all the capabilities to achieve it. Over the next three years this major investment should lead to real and positive change in services for patients.”