Video Games Provide A Critical Connection for Children in Hospice

Almost 15 years ago, I worked on accessibility tools building controllers and speech enhancement tech that provided increased access to computers and other electronics. But, honestly, I never really thought about what the accessibility enhancements provided beyond, well, accessibility…

This week a brilliant new associate of mine, Sruli Broocker, asked me if I knew anything about using video games for hospice care. I told him I didn’t really, but it got me thinking and researching.

In my review, I came upon this article. To my surprise, the cover shot included a product I had worked on, the Ablenet Buddy Button. This sparked a greater understanding for me. Sruli, It turns out, as you suspected, video games have a lot of potential to provide critical end of life care, and accessibility centers seem to have figured this out mostly through observing kids at play.

Partly, this is about how games can take people out of their lives, if only for a few minutes. Sixteen-year-old Farhan Aziz has muscular dystrophy, a group of muscle-wasting conditions that effect 1 in every 1,000 people. “Video games provide a way to focus on something different,” he says while thrashing an Audi around the English countryside in Forza 4. “They just really relax me.”

[The hospice] team had found that games can play an important role in palliative care beyond simple distraction. “These children’s lives are very restricted, they might not have many friends outside, but in here they can play games together,” she says. “And while they’re playing, children will talk to each other about things that they haven’t even said to their carers or their parents.”

Big wow! The free flowing expression of hard feelings and thoughts that have otherwise been trapped inside; that’s some therapeutic potential.

Meeting people like Sruli and exchanging ideas around Immersive Medicine’s potential is by far one of my favorite parts of the DeepWell DTx journey. Please keep the innovative thoughts coming – they will help shape this new and exciting world of medicinal media. 

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/dec/18/childrens-hospice-video-games-adaptive-controller