Other Projects and Collaborations
Sensory VR
Anxiety in UK primary school children
It was reported in May 2019 prior to Covid 19, that as many as 66% of primary school children are in a state of anxiety about their school life.
A nationwide survey of primary school parents and teachers has revealed childhood anxiety is a problem in the UK.
In fact, as many as 66% of mums and dads claim their child regularly feels anxious about lessons, homework – and social aspects such as bullying and friendships.
Almost a THIRD (30%) of the parents who took part in the study said learning how to manage their child’s anxiety is now more important to them than their academic success, with 63% saying it is just as important.
And the study found that to combat school stress, 56% of parents now practice mindfulness with their child at home, to try and ease their minds about the daily stresses and strains.
According to the survey, teachers are also increasingly concerned about their pupil’s mental health, with 77% saying most of their students have experienced anxiety about school life, while 92% of teachers believe mindfulness is vitally important to their students’ growth.
We created and supply our unique product complete with the virtual reality equipment.
Our virtual reality application was carefully designed with transferable skills to improve mental health, concentration, coordination and motor skills through immersive interactive gameplay. Working closely with local additional needs primary school and neurodiverse support provisions, ensuring we got it right.
This application had a real-world validation complete with Liverpool John Moores University with the support from the Innovacy Agency, Health Matters and The Growth Platform.
Teachers Overview: The classroom teacher planned to continue to use the Sensory VR headsets next academic year given her positive experiences using it during Summer Term 2022. She noted what a positive addition it was to her classroom.
Wellbeing VR
Working with our sister company Visual Therapies CIC we developed the Wellbeing VR application this has been designed reduce stress, anxiety and enhance the ability to focus through a series of various 360-degree film footage, calming music and tailor-made voice-overs.
This therapeutic intervention enables the user to be transferred to a peaceful and calming environment to regulate breathing and reduce heart rate to then carry on the day in a healthier and positive manner. With the success of this virtual reality application, it has now been adopted by the NHS Maternal Mental Health team at Arrowe Park Hospital for their patients and staff.
This intervention has been used to help students when revising for exams, improving, give rest bite for care givers and support mental health for employees which has resulted in a reduction of time taken off through stress and it has also played a role in helping people suffering from PTSD. Viz Box is proud to say that we working closely with Visual Therapies CIC, supporting the third sector, their workers and their users with our train the trainer model. This application has had funding support and research and development completed with Innovate UK Edge and The Growth Platform, Liverpool City Region.
In 2019/20 there were an estimated 828,000 workers affected by work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Stress, depression or anxiety is more prevalent than ever in public service industries such as education, health and social care and public administration and defence. Healthcare workers, teaching and public services show higher levels of stress compared to all jobs. For the full report please see below.
