"Giustino Fortunato" University of Benevento, Benevento, Italy.
Department of Human Sciences for Education "Riccardo Massa", Center for Studies in Communication Sciences "Luigi Anolli" (CESCOM), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Front Public Health. 2021 Feb 16;8:635426. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.635426. eCollection 2020.
The COVID-19 poses an ongoing threat to lives around the world and challenges the existing public health and medical service delivery. The lockdown or quarantine measures adopted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has caused the interruption in ongoing care and access to medical care including to patients with existing neurological conditions. Besides the passivity, isolation, and withdrawal, patients with neurodegenerative diseases experience difficulties in communication due to a limited access to leisure opportunities and interaction with friends and relatives. The communication difficulties may exacerbate the burden on the caregivers. Therefore, assistive-technologies may be a useful strategy in mitigating challenges associated with remote communication. The current paper presents an overview of the use of assistive technologies using virtual reality and virtual body ownership in providing communication opportunities to isolated patients, during COVID-19, with neurological diseases and moderate-to-severe communication difficulties. We postulate that the assistive technologies-based intervention may improve social interactions in patients with neurodegenerative diseases and acquired brain injury-thereby reducing isolation and improving their quality of life and mental well-being.
新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)持续威胁着全球各地的生命,对现有的公共卫生和医疗服务提出了挑战。为了防止 COVID-19 的传播而采取的封锁或隔离措施,导致正在进行的护理和获得医疗服务的机会中断,包括对现有神经疾病的患者。除了被动、隔离和退缩之外,神经退行性疾病患者由于休闲机会有限以及与朋友和亲戚的互动受限,在沟通方面存在困难。沟通困难可能会加重照顾者的负担。因此,辅助技术可能是缓解与远程沟通相关挑战的有效策略。本文概述了在 COVID-19 期间,使用虚拟现实和虚拟身体所有权等辅助技术为患有神经疾病和中重度沟通障碍的隔离患者提供沟通机会的情况。我们推测,基于辅助技术的干预措施可以改善神经退行性疾病和获得性脑损伤患者的社交互动,从而减少隔离并提高他们的生活质量和心理健康。