NHS VR Therapy for Social Anxiety

Hayley Lattman is an attorney who has worked in the online retail industry, where she provides counsel on legal matters and negotiations with third parties. Amongst other responsibilities, Hayley Lattman has been involved with product development of various virtual reality (VR) products and their applications in the real world.

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK announced in March of 2020 that it would be using VR technology in a new treatment for social anxiety. The program, called “OVR Social Engagement, is designed to give patients suffering from social anxiety a safe space to tackle challenging situations like taking public transport on a crowded bus or interacting with strangers at the supermarket.

The patients can become immersed in these virtual scenarios with headsets and special gloves to give them a window of interaction, but they can pull out and take a break at any time if they feel overwhelmed. The goal is to use these safe spaces to practice coping techniques that can be applied in the real world. This innovation in VR technology is at odds with the mainstream assumption that VR technology is only good for entertainment such as gaming, but because of that it represents new avenues for investors or developers who want to work with VR.