The Future of Care
For care homes, the future is always a balance between improving the service they offer their residents while ensuring their business remains profitable.
Technology is increasingly recognised as playing an important role in that future, as it offers new opportunities to engage with and support residents, while reducing the burden on staff. The CQC are now actively encouraging the adoption of new technologies.
V-Thera is very much a part of that future. It allows care homes to stand out by offering improved care delivery at an affordable cost.
The simple app is easy to incorporate into the life of the care home. Sessions can be conducted by a single staff member, leaving more time for individualised support and supervision. And a subscription with V-Thera works out at just a few pounds a day.
Animal Assisted Therapy - Without The Animal
The benefits of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with live animals are widely documented. It can lead to significant improvements in communication, reminiscence and general well-being even in older adults with dementia. It is particularly powerful for people who have owned a pet, but it works for many individuals.
Unfortunately it can be challenging to incorporat live animals into the daily life of a care home due to issues with allergies, hygiene, animal care and temperament and staffing constraints, not to mention cost.
V-Thera digital pets offer the same benefits, but are clean, safe and always ready to interact. Sessions should be limited to 10 minutes, but the only limit to the number of sessions a virtual pet can offer in a day is the battery in the headset.
V-Thera Brings Care To Life
V-Thera offers great potential as a support for psychological stability and well-being.
Engagement
Because the virtual pet appears in familiar surroundings, users are immediately relaxed. For some, it is enough just to see and pat the dog or cat, while for others, throwing a ball or feeding brings real joy.
Reminiscence
Interaction brings back personal memories of past pets or family members. Reminiscence Therapy is as a non-pharmacological approach to dementia care, contributing to compassionate, person-centred care that resonates on an emotional level.
Communication
V-Thera encourages communication as the user talks directly to the virtual pet and shares their emotions with staff and other residents. This fosters improved connections and a general uplift in morale in the home.
Movement
The gentle movements trigger muscle memory, allowing residents to relearn how to push a button, throw a ball or shake a can. V-Thera is designed to adapt to all capabilities and never requires the user to do more than is comfortable for them.
Your V-Thera
V-Thera has been developed for Meta’s Quest 3S headset - it is reliable, easy to use and is excellent value for money.
Loading the app on the headset takes just a few minutes, and we provide full instructions to help you through the process and to demonstrate how to set up and use the app. Then you are ready to go.
We have found that some residents are more willign to try that others, but as they see others use it, they want to take part themselves. This is helped by using the casting function in the headset to share the user’s experience widely on a television or screen. Again, this is very simple to do.
We recommend using hygene strips or washable vison guards to ensure hygiene is maintianed as the headset is moved from user to user - this is also covered in the instructions.