Virtual reality opens doors for older adults to socialize

Summary

Like many retirement communities, The Terraces in Los Gatos, California, offers residents a calm routine—one that can also make day-to-day connections feel limited. But the community has started scheduling group sessions in which older adults put on virtual reality headsets and experience shared trips and activities from the same room. Organizers say those sessions often spark conversations afterward, helping residents connect with one another through the experience.

At The Terraces, residents many in their 80s and 90s take turns donning the headsets while caretakers set up a rotating “date” for the residents. In a session earlier this year, Ginny Baird, 81, described the experience as she watched herself and others “paddling their arms alongside their chairs” while swimming with dolphins in one of the program’s 3D scenes. Another resident reacted during a virtual ride in a hot-air balloon by gasping, “Oh my God!” A separate participant shuddered as the content unfolded, saying, “It’s hard to watch!”

Rendever, a privately owned company based in Somerville, Massachusetts, provides the programming that the community uses and says it has worked with 800 retirement communities in the United States and Canada. The company’s approach turns virtual environments—ranging from ocean scenes to hang-gliding expeditions—into something residents can experience together rather than in isolation. The platform can also be used to revisit places from residents’ pasts, including hometown settings, with some participants seeing their childhood communities after decades away.

Sue Livingstone, 84, said a virtual trip to her childhood neighborhood in New York City’s Queens borough helped convince her to try the technology even though she can still get out more often than some people at The Terraces. “It isn’t just about being able to see it again, it’s about all the memories that it brings back,” she said. She added that some residents do not often leave their comfort zones but may be more likely to try the headsets if they can be drawn into the conversation.

Adrian Marshall, the community life director at The Terraces, said the VR experiences work in part because word of a session spreads from resident to resident. “It turns into a conversation starter for them,” Marshall said. He said it helps create a human connection among residents and noted that participation may even mean skipping some of the community’s other activities, such as Mexican Train, a dominoes-like board game popular among residents.

Rendever also is working to study the effect of such VR experiences on social isolation. The company said it received a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health that will provide nearly $4.5 million to study ways to reduce social isolation among seniors living at home and their caregivers. The research aims to evaluate how VR can fit into support for older adults, alongside other activities and caregiving approaches.

Some studies have found that VR presented in limited viewing formats can help older people maintain or improve cognitive functions, support memory, and foster social connections with family members and fellow residents of care facilities, according to the report. Katherine “Kate” Dupuis, a neuropsychologist and professor who studies aging issues at Sheridan College in Canada, cautioned that “There is always a risk of too much screen time,” but said that “if you use it cautiously, with meaning and purpose, it can be very helpful.” Pallabi Bhowmick, a researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the stereotypes that older adults will not try new technology should be challenged, saying they are willing and want to adapt to tools that feel meaningful.

Rendever CEO Kyle Rand said the company’s interest in using VR to build connection also reflects personal experience. Rand said his own goal grew from trying to help his grandmother deal with emotional and mental challenges of aging, and he co-founded Rendever in 2016 after studying neuroengineering at Duke University. “What really fascinates me about humans is just how much our brain depends on social connection and how much we learn from others,” Rand said. He described how a group of residents can spend about 30 minutes in a VR experience together and then continue talking during lunch. He said it gives people a shared topic that can carry beyond the headset.

The report also noted that other companies compete in the senior living VR market, including Dallas-based Mynd Immersive. And beyond social connection, VR programs have been used as a possible tool for slowing down dementia-related effects in some settings; another Silicon Valley retirement village, the Forum, sometimes uses the technology in that way. Bob Rogallo, a Forum resident with dementia who the report says has rendered him speechless, appeared to enjoy a virtual hike through Glacier National Park in Montana while celebrating his 83rd birthday with his wife of 61 years. His wife, Sallie Rogallo, said the experience brought back memories of their visits to the park over more than 30 years, saying, “It made me wish I was 30 years younger so I could do it again.” At the Forum, another resident, 93-year-old Almut Schultz, laughed while watching a virtual classical music performance, then seemed to want to play with a puppy in her headset during the session, according to the report.