Senior living residents explore the world through virtual reality
LITTLETON, Colo. — Clarence Robinson smiles often and prefers casual introductions.
“My name is Clarence Robinson, but everyone calls me 'Robbie.' I like that better because — 'Clarence' — people like to tease me about that name,” the 87-year-old laughed.
Robinson knows the importance of having a good time and making the best of every moment. His wife died several years ago after experiencing cognitive decline from dementia.
“We still had fun even when her memory left," he said. "You can’t bring a person back into your world, but you can go into their world.”
Now Robinson volunteers at assisted living homes by helping seniors — many who are dealing with cognitive decline — experience something new through virtual reality goggles.
“We’ve got people that get out and go walk along the beach,” explained Erika Leno, one of the owners of ThriveCare Assisted Living in Littleton, where Robinson often volunteers.
“He’s technologically savvy,” she added, explaining that the process more complicated than just handing over a pair of VR goggles to someone.
“He [Robinson] gets everything connected to the WiFi and he can navigate everything to find something that appeals to them. And he’s their age, so to have a peer instead of someone much younger coming in to do something, they feel like they’re all on the same page,” said Leno.
Leno said after Robinson gets people set up with the goggles, they can choose their own experience. “It’s amazing because someone is visiting a national park; someone’s at an Elvis concert; another is listening to Mozart and watching the conductor.”
Leno said the virtual reality goggles make a huge difference for seniors who have trouble focusing on a task for more than a few minutes.
“When you turn on music and [they hear] their favorite conductor — we’ve got some residents who would be disengaged with any activities after five minutes — but with this, they’re completely engaged for 20, 30, 40 minutes and it’s amazing to see.”
Robinson owns two of the goggles, Barb Lutz owns two more and Riverpoint Senior Living owns another pair. They coordinate with requests to then go to a variety of different senior living homes. You can call Barb at 720-231-6248 to schedule an appointment to use the goggles.
For Robinson, it's about the fun.
“I’m retired!" he exclaimed. "I’m having fun with these ladies, so I get joy out of seeing the response I get from different people it’s unbelievable.”
And for him it's amazing to see the changes in the people he works with.
“It makes my heart warm," he said. "I really enjoy it because why can’t we give a little fun to someone else in life?"
Brian Willie is the content production manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can contact him at brianwillie@rmpbs.org.
Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.