North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare is pioneering the use of virtual walkthroughs of its mental health services to allow service users and their loved ones to preview the facilities they will be using. In doing so, the Trust is breaking down barriers to accessing mental healthcare facilities by dispelling myths or misconceptions about what modern, compassionate NHS mental healthcare looks and feels like.
The increasing use of digital technology to increase access to NHS care is one of the three central pillars of the Government’s Ten Year Plan for the NHS, published in July.
Sarah and Barry
The use of virtual walkthroughs is being highlighted this week through the launch of a new film called “Sarah and Barry – a 360 degree virtual walkthrough of Ward 4”. We are grateful for the partnership and contribution of Matterport ( https://matterport.com ) and Spliced Films ( https://splicedfilms.co.uk ) in working with us to make this film.
Barry is a service user at Ward 4 at our Harplands Hospital with dementia.
In this short film, we meet Barry and his daughter, Sarah. Before she agreed to her Dad being admitted to Ward 4, Sarah was able to use our 360 degree virtual walkthrough of Ward 4 to see the facilities and allay any concerns or preconceptions she may have had about what a mental health facility looks like.
We also hear from Dr Becky Chubb, Deputy Clinical Director and Joe McCrea, Associate Director of Communications about the clinical and engagement benefits brought to the Trust and its services and service users through the use of 360 degree walkthroughs.
You can watch the film below.
The virtual walkthroughs
We have now completed walkthroughs for almost all of our facilities. You can view the full walkthrough of Ward 4 below:
Or you can see the full suite of all our walkthroughs at https://discover.matterport.com/account/DW3mbfdc1vC
You can also see them, service by service, as part of our comprehensive suite of information for each of our services, including directions, opening times, service descriptions and feedback, and service user video stories via our Services page on our public website at https://www.combined.nhs.uk/services/
Combined Virtual Reality Programme
The walkthroughs can be viewed through any normal web browser or, for a fully immersive experience,, through using a VR headset such as Apple Vision Pro or Oculus. The development of 360 degree walkthroughs at Combined Healthcare is an initiative delivered through our Combined Virtual Reality (CVR) programme.
You can read about our further innovation in virtual reality at https://www.combined.nhs.uk/about/quality-and-innovation/combined-virtual-reality-cvr/
