TRACY COLLETTE GARY
YOUNIVERSE
The impossible made possible.
PROJECT VISION
YOUNIVERSE is an alternate reality where users can explore other cities, nations, or worlds. While they journey they are met with challenges that test their abilities to adapt, learn and grow. Youniverse uses built-in mental assessments to gear the experience towards the user's therapeutic needs, meeting the requirements for effective therapy based on current standards.
CHALLENGES
Commercialization of this technology is lacking. Research shows the VR technology that currently exists does not support the therapeutic benefits they advertise, most effective VR Treatments are made available only to the psychiatric community.
USER DEMOGRAPHIC
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Children aged 12–17 years were more likely to have received any mental health treatment in the past 12 months (16.8%) compared with children aged 5–11 years (10.8%).
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Boys (9.8%) were more likely than girls (7.0%) to have taken medication for their mental health in the past 12 months.
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Non-Hispanic white children were more likely than Hispanic or non-Hispanic black children to have received any mental health treatment in the past 12 months.
Mental Health
Medication Only
Counseling/Therapy
YOUNIVERSE ENVIRONMENT
DATABASE
User Data
Mental
Assessment
Treatment
Recommend
ations
Compile
Youniverse Profile
COMPETETIVE ANALYSIS
A team of experts from technical and clinical backgrounds judged the therapeutic potential of several VR/Metaverse games that currently advertise benefits in the therapeutic space, some are available for public use, while others are available for Therapists only.
RESULTS
The reviewers found 1,805 Metaverse/VR applications in their initial search, of which 50 met their inclusion as freely accessible and offered some potential mental health benefit.
VR Games available to the public.
Research courtesy of Best, P., Meireles, M., Schroeder, F., Montgomery, L., Maddock, A., Davidson, G., … & Van Daele, T. (2021). Freely Available Virtual Reality Experiences as Tools to Support Mental Health Therapy: a Systematic Scoping Review and Consensus Based Interdisciplinary Analysis. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 1-15.
EVALUATION
Of the 50 identified applications, only 11 were ultimately judged to have the potential to support mental health care practices. These were all judged to be subtle as an adjunctive tool for therapy rather than a replacement, with many considered to require significant supervision and guidance. There were two that truly stood out above the rest, those were Amelia Virtual Care and XR Health.
Amelia Virtual Care
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For Mental Health Professionals Only.
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Currently in use by 2000 therapists,
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Used with 20,000 patients
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160,000 VR sessions,
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Used in 70 countries.
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Expensive
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Does not offer cross platform experience.
XRHealth
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Personalized mental health from the comfort of your home.
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Specifically caters to adults.
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Expensive
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Specialized Metaverse Rooms
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Does not offer cross Platform experience.
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There are Metaverse/VR games that claim to have some therapeutic benefits.
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Our goal is to develop an evidence-based Metaverse cross-platform experience that is cost-effective and can act as a tool for parents, as well as Therapists.
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Research the current market to determine who our competitors are.
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Determine the age range to serve as a template for future developments.
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Develop plan for integration of diagnosis /treatment into the actual experience.
OUR GOALS
META-ANALYSIS TREATMENT DATABASE
Records Identified
Additional records Identified.
Duplicates Removed
Records Screened
Access data for eligibility.
Qualitative Synthesis
Quantitive Synthesis
Output
Youniverse uses the DSM-V database to create an algorithm that uses a search query as input and runs it through a set of instructions. This query searches the database for relevant items. This allows the VR game to load this to the session interface and structure the experience is based on the user’s needs.