VR Dementia Experience Workshop (Jan 2024)

Student Affairs Office Service-Learning HKMU Service Alliance VR Dementia Experience Workshop (Jan 2024)

VR Dementia Experience Workshop

(Jan 2024)

In January 2024, the Student Affairs Office organized a VR Dementia Experience Workshop for Service Alliance members. On the day of the workshop, Matthew Sham, the founder of The Illuminant, shared information about dementia with the students, allowing them to gain a more comprehensive understanding of dementia rather than being limited to thinking dementia patients only have “poor memory”.
During the workshop, the students could gain first-hand experience of the challenges dementia patients face in their daily lives through VR and empathize with the patients from a new angle. In addition, students also learned how to communicate and interact with the patients and what to pay attention to when taking care of them.
Student’s Sharing
Initially, I did not understand much about dementia and thought that the patients just had poor memory. After participating in the workshop, I gained a better understanding of the characteristics of dementia, such as hallucinations. Through the VR experience, I understood the patients' difficulties from the first-person perspective. Also, I learned how to get along with them, such as gestures when holding hands and the “Three Don't principles”.
(Tse Sze Sze, Bachelor of Education with Honours in Early Childhood Education (Leadership and Special Educational Needs), Year 3)
This is my first time experiencing what it is like to be a dementia patient through VR. After the VR experience, the group discussion allowed me to reflect on the entire experience from a third-person perspective, enabling me to gain a profound impression by understanding the patient's feelings from different angles.
(Lo Shum Yu, Bachelor of Education with Honours in Early Childhood Education (Leadership and Special Educational Needs), Year 3)
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