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Teaching and Learning A Virtual Reality-based Simulation to Understanding Mental Illness The School of Nursing at The University of Hong Kong incorporates experiential learning into its teaching program to immerse learners in an experience and to enable them to develop new skills, attitudes, or ways of thinking. To enhance experimental learning in mental health nursing, we initiated a virtual reality (VR) training environment to provide an insight for students into what a person with severe mental illness might battle on any given day in a virtual world. VR simulation provides a way for translating a person’s psychological experience into a simulated experience that others can share. The impossibility of seeing what mental illness is like is therefore made somewhat possible. This technology engages our students to better understand how debilitating mental health disorders can be, and allows them to put themselves in the figurative shoes of an individual suffering from mental illness. Formaso et al. (2017) and Roberts et al. (2005) found that VR mental illness simulation was effective in developing nurses’ core competency including empathetic understanding, reduction in stigma towards people with mental health illnesses, and by extension, the performance of academic- based learning. Our school created an innovative VR mental health simulation which aims to bolster students’ empathetic understanding in people with mental illness by replicating their psychiatric experience and daily difficulties. The simulation imitates real life symptoms associated with different mental illnesses including schizophrenic spectrum disorders, autism, depression and social anxiety disorders. The students see through the eyes of people diagnosed with mental illness as a first-person perspective. They experiencewhat the patient sees, thinks, and hears with psychiatric symptoms, such as auditory and visual hallucinations, delusional thoughts or sensory overload. The simulation also reveals other difficulties, such as discrimination and stigma from society. The vignettes of mental illnesses were designed by two experienced psychiatric nurses based on information from patients’ interviews and case reports. We were honoured to have Mr. Wong Chung Bao Terry, the Professional Service Manager (Community Services), New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, share his expert advice about mental health promotion using VR immersive simulation. The teaching team also worked with e-learning technology experts from HKU’s Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI) tofigureout thebestway to simulate theexperiences that clients struggle with. Using e-learning technology, the team used 360 degree VR video shooting to film a number of scenes to explore the patient’s life at school, in a restaurant, and at home. We utilized Basic Google cardboard, a simple affordable paper-made headset for the immersive experience, which is equipped to create an immersive VR environment for every student in a large class. Following a three-minute uniquely VR simulation experience, students take off the cardboard head set and engage in a debriefing focusing on reflection about the experience, challenges and difficulties that the client encounters, and their own attitude towards mental illness. Following the immersion, students complete a questionnaire which explores their empathy, knowledge and attitude towards mental illness. While students who wear the cardboard can remove themselves at any time from the simulation, the people with mental illness have not been able to escape the feeling of fear and helplessness. VR immersive simulation is a starting point for students’ understanding of why mental illness can be so devastating. We want our students to have more compassion, understanding and acceptance of issues around mental illness. References Roberts, M. C., Borden, K. A., Christiansen, M. D., & Lopez, S. J.(2005). Fostering a cultures shift: Assessment of competence in the education and careers of professional psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36(4), 355–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735- 7028.36.4.355 Formosa, N. J., Morrison, B. W., Geoffrey, H., & Stone, D. (2017). Testing the efficacy of a virtual reality-based simulation in enhancing users’ knowledge, attitudes, and empathy relating to psychosis. Australian Journal of Psychology. 70(3), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12167 The team filmed the video ‘through the eye of psychosis’. VR video slapshot: Our students are ‘being blamed’ because of their ‘mental illness’. VR video slapshot: Our students experience ‘visual hallucination’ through the VR immersive simulation. Preparing the shooting. Ms. Angie Lam Lecturer 3 Issue 42 Nov 2018