Mental care as a problem in china has been undergoing transformations and doctors have even started using Virtual Reality Programs and it has been one sign of innovation in the notoriously swamped psychiatric services. These creations and innovations have led to developments from the customary care models to modern methods like the use of VR and have made china to be a leader in VR psychiatry.
How Do VR applications Help
The VR application has also helped them in psychiatric operations in that patients are able to be helped in honing their emotional and physical responses by expressing them to various simulations that look like real-life things or activities and this usually helps in exposing their brain to difficult challenges that they have been undergoing e.g. An alcohol addict, in this case, can be put to sit at a virtual bar and this is made so that he can not drink and it helps in since he does not drink at all. Several tests on Virtual Reality technology have been done globally by various researchers and they have proved that it has been of tremendous success ever since it was put into practice by psychiatrists. By 2017 VR treatment showed 300 studies in the several peer-viewed journals that were reviewed in the year before (2016).
Virtual Reality Applications and Practitioners’ Shortages
Although VR has various advantages and its use has helped in many ways, a large number of mentally ill patients in China have not yet sought out its help in the country. This is a result of a shortage of trained or rather professionals in the psychiatric field which has caused a public health menace in the nation. Xiauduo Fan who is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School said that averagely one psychiatrist usually treats more than 100 mentally retarded patients per day and he continues to state that the operation lacks enough time, care, and also the patient’s privacy due to overpopulation in the hospital wards.
VR in china has been put so as to help in the shortages and stigma since it is automatic and easily scaled to serve more people, especially those who are stigmatized Since the mentally ill patients also suffer from a lack of treatment due to the cultural beliefs and norms in the china communities. They suffer from stigmatization thus the fear of seeking medical attention. Some people have even gone to the extent of locking the patients up and even caging them in some instances. This is due to the history of viewing them as criminals thus a low trust with a high stigmatization situation. With the VR system in place, there is no stigma and that’s why Cognitive Leap a VR company emerged and it only deals with mental sickness issues.
This problem has contributed to health care improvements and has brought about the start of 100 artificial intelligence firms in China.
References
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-china-mental-health-care-goes-virtual/
https://www.cognitiveleap.com/
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