Application Design for a Virtual Reality Therapy Game for Patients with Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is a complex myriad of symptoms associated with the dementing condition. They are costly to treat and cause poor health outcomes both for the patient and their caregivers. This paper is part of an on-going research on developing an effective immersive technology for the management of patients with BPSD. Undertaken in collaboration with healthcare professionals and scientists from the Philippines, a virtual reality (VR) game prototype is designed, curated and set within the Philippine culture. For this paper, the goals are to gather necessary factors needed to administer a therapy anchored on VR to address BPSD; and to acquire insights, comments, and recommendations on the design and architecture for further development of a VR game prototype. To achieve these goals, two focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted and a VR game prototype was enhanced based on the recommendations generated from the first FGD. Findings of this study may be used as foundations or template for future studies on VR applications for other diseases and their eventual adoption into the Philippine healthcare system.