How immersive reality is helping aged care residents travel the world

In a sunlit recreation room in suburban Australia, residents of an aged care facility sip tea and settle into their seats as the scenery begins to move. Outside the “windows,” snow capped peaks rise in the French Alps, fields roll past in the English countryside and red desert unfurls across Central Australia. No one has left the building. Instead, technology has brought the journey to them.

As long journeys and even short outings become difficult for many older people, immersive virtual and augmented reality programs are emerging as unlikely tools to combat loneliness and confinement.

Evonne Miller, a professor of design psychology at QUT in Brisbane, has undertaken research into how activities such as virtual and augmented reality can help provide social and emotional enrichment for people living in aged care, and says the technology has "lots of potential and opportunity."

"The reality is, for too many people when they enter aged care, it can be too difficult to leave," Professor Miller says.

Her immersive reality programs and toolkit place residents inside digitally recreated environments using headsets or large screen displays, allowing them to revisit places from their past or experience new ones. Participants with limited mobility can “travel” to Paris, glide through safari landscapes or swim alongside dolphins, allowing many to travel for the first time in decades. The effect, Miller says, goes beyond entertainment, stimulating memory, conversation and emotional engagement.

But adapting the technology to aged care settings come with obstacles. Many facilities lack reliable internet access or were not designed with immersive technologies in mind. Even so, the falling cost of equipment has made virtual experiences more accessible, prompting advocates to argue that digital travel should sit alongside traditional activities like bingo or exercise classes rather than remain a novelty.

Outside the research world, social entrepreneurs are finding creative ways to bring immersive experiences directly to residents. One initiative recreates long-distance train journeys inside a specially fitted van, complete with café tables, white tablecloths and high tea service. As landscapes scroll past on multiple screens, participants chat about their last holidays, rekindling anticipation and shared memory.

The power of the experience lies in its simplicity. Though the technology is modest, its emotional impact can be profound, offering moments of wonder and escape in environments often defined by routine. In a sector searching for meaningful ways to improve quality of life, immersive reality is beginning to offer something both rare and essential: the feeling of going somewhere new.

Read more on this story at the ABC here.