Mental health problems are common. Some conditions are becoming less taboo (such as depression and anxiety becoming increasingly normalised); others, like psychosis, are sadly much less accepted.
Dr Felicity Waite showed us the images that appear when you Google psychosis. They are not kind and show just how misunderstood and stigmatised the condition still is. She stressed the need to speak more openly and compassionately about psychosis, and to understand that it is often linked to very tough experiences, often in childhood. It can be a response to, and a way of coping with, frightening and unsafe conditions.
She explained that psychosis is not one single disorder, but a group of symptoms. These can include paranoia, hearing or seeing things that other people do not, or beliefs of exceptionality. It can disrupt people’s daily lives, plus there are also physical health difficulties. On average, the life expectancy of a person with psychosis is reduced by 15 years. Current treatments bring only small benefits and can have major side effects, but Dr Waite’s work tries to offer something different.
Virtual Reality (VR) as a treatment
The premise of the VR technology she and her colleagues developed is to let people practise situations that they find frightening and gradually learn that nothing bad happens. To demonstrate, Dr Waite shared a VR example of someone walking a plank at the top of a skyscraper. Even though it was clearly VR, many of us felt stressed just watching it. She explained that for some people with psychosis, everyday things like walking down the street can feel like this.
‘The most boring VR ever’
Dr Waite, Prof Freeman, and team developed this technology with more than 100 people with lived experience of psychosis to make the tool more useful and usable. For example, through this process, they discovered that the most requested scenario was not going to the dentist or walking down a dark alley. It was opening your own front door and leaving your house.
Dr Waite affectionately referred to the programme as ‘the most boring VR ever’, but the results were definitely not boring! A randomised control trial involving more than 300 patients showed that the VR treatment was effective and helped people live more normal lives. Amazingly, patients with the most severe presentations benefitted the most.
The final hurdle
The final part of the discussion focused on access. VR equipment is now cheaper and more portable, but it’s still not accessible to everyone. As Dr Waite put it, treatments need to be:
- effective (tick),
- acceptable (tick),
- and accessible (still working on that one).
I appreciated how kind her approach felt. It was grounded in the reality of patients and their needs, rather than in technology for its own sake. As the first VR treatment endorsed by the NHS, her work feels so hopeful — not because it is high-tech and snazzy, but because it helps people reclaim ordinary parts of life that fear had taken away.
