Hospital expands ‘popular’ virtual reality therapy

A hospital in East Yorkshire is offering the use of virtual reality (VR) equipment to cancer patients and their loved ones to help them relax.

Castle Hill Hospital offered the tech to young patients being treated in its Teenage and Young Adult Unit last year.

The headsets transport users to relaxing landscapes such as beach, mountain and forest settings and the Northern Lights.

It proved so popular that the Cottingham hospital has invested in more equipment to extend the project to other cancer patients and will also hold a taster session for loved ones and carers.

Dr Jennie Ormerod, from the hospital, said: “Studies have shown that the same parts of our brain are [as] activated in virtual environments as they are in real-life settings.”

Last year the Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance provided £1,600 to the hospital to buy the VR equipment.

Following “fantastic feedback”, the cancer psychological team invested in more equipment so patients of any age and their family, friends and carers could experience it as well.

Dr Ormerod said: “A cancer diagnosis can be really difficult to come to terms with and treatment can sometimes be gruelling, so we wanted to be able to offer something to help our patients regulate their emotions and put them in a better place psychologically.”

Patients can book to use the headsets at the Macmillan Information Centre on Tuesday afternoons from 3 June.

A drop-in session will also take place at the centre on 24 June for anyone interested in testing the headsets.