Ong Triton, Barrera Janelle F, Sunkara Charvi, Soni Hiral, Ivanova Julia, Cummins Mollie R, Schuler Kaitlyn R, Wilczewski Hattie, Welch Brandon M, Bunnell Brian E
Doxy.me Research, Doxy.me Inc., Rochester, NY, United States.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States.
Front Virtual Real. 2024;5. doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1332874. Epub 2024 Jul 3.
Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that can enhance experiences and outcomes in mental healthcare. However, mental health therapists have been slow to adopt VR into practice. Implementation of telehealth-based VR therapy (tele-VR) could catalyze adoption and innovation in mental healthcare. To explore therapists' perspectives on tele-VR, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of practicing mental health providers in the United States in June-July 2023. We analyzed 176 completed surveys from therapists, of whom 51.14% had no prior experience with VR, only 6.25% had used VR clinically, and 56.82% had neutral impressions of VR for therapy. Despite therapists' general inexperience with VR, therapists indicated a wide variety of tele-VR simulations (e.g., social situations, flying, heights) and features (e.g., personalized spaces, homework, interactivity) would be moderately to extremely useful for their practices. Therapists also requested additional VR simulations and features for their telehealth clients such as behavioral skills training, exposure therapy, gender identity therapy, and psychological assessments in VR. Therapists rated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance, the ability to try VR before buying, affordability for therapists, accessibility for clients, and insurance coverage as the five most influential implementation factors for tele-VR. Overall, therapists were generally inexperienced and neutral about VR for telehealth therapy, but were interested in tele-VR for specific applications. These findings provide actionable directions for future research and collaborative development of therapeutic VR content and features.
虚拟现实（VR）是一项新兴技术，可提升心理保健的体验和效果。然而，心理健康治疗师在将VR应用于实践方面进展缓慢。实施基于远程医疗的VR治疗（远程VR）可以促进心理保健领域对VR的采用和创新。为了探究治疗师对远程VR的看法，我们于2023年6月至7月对美国执业心理健康服务提供者进行了一项横断面调查。我们分析了治疗师完成的176份调查问卷，其中51.14%的人此前没有VR相关经验，只有6.25%的人在临床中使用过VR，56.82%的人对VR治疗持中立态度。尽管治疗师普遍缺乏VR经验，但他们表示，各种各样的远程VR模拟（如社交场景、飞行、高处）和功能（如个性化空间、家庭作业、交互性）对他们的实践将有中度到极大的帮助。治疗师还为他们的远程医疗客户要求增加VR模拟和功能，如行为技能训练、暴露疗法、性别认同疗法以及VR中的心理评估。治疗师将《健康保险流通与责任法案》合规性、购买前试用VR的能力、治疗师的可承受性、客户的可及性以及保险覆盖范围列为远程VR的五个最具影响力的实施因素。总体而言，治疗师对远程医疗治疗中的VR普遍缺乏经验且持中立态度，但对特定应用的远程VR感兴趣。这些发现为未来治疗性VR内容和功能的研究及合作开发提供了可操作的方向。
