Starting Phase of the Project

This is what the starting phase of the project looked like.

We met and discussed what areas of Social Services we wanted to focus on. The final decision was: the elderly, social anxiety, autism and a new trend of alchoholic misuse, "Eyeballing".

Why those areas of Social Services?
The main reason for the first choice is strictly related to the global aging of the population we are facing. We believe that the sector of the elderly should be one of those on which the welfare system and social workers (current and future) have to focus more and deeply, especially in the next few years.A certainly innovative and probably not too costly way to stimulate and include old people (especially those living in nursing homes or seniors’ residences), preventing their social isolation and encouraging their participation is represented by VR.
According to several studies, COVID-19 pandemic led to increasing stress mainly because of social isolation. Indeed, during this period people lost their ability to work, seek support from loved ones and engage in their communities, developing loneliness, fear and suffering that contributed to introduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and in some cases even suicidal thinking.Social problems are quite current nowadays, that is why we decided to focus on the topic. So, therapies and methods to help overcome these situations have been developed. Recent research showed that people suffering from anxiety and depression might benefit from activities, treatments that include virtual reality.


There are 1,5 million children living with autism just in the US and 60-90% of autistic adults are unemployed or underemployed. Extremely helpful applications have been made to help develop the skills of autistic children in a safe environment by being in lifelike simulations. Moreover, to support people with disabilities find a job, practising their communication skills, few apps have been created. In addition, excellent videos to understand better what a person with autism goes through on a daily basis have been made. Another topic we chose to focus on for implementing VR use among social services students and professors as well as social workers is the one linked to alcohol misuse and abuse. We believe it is an intergenerational and intercultural phenomenon that is assuming new and increasingly dangerous forms, particularly among young people. Alternative methods of alcohol consumption have recently emerged among adolescents and young adults, like binge drinking, tampons soaked in spirits, drunkorexia and eyeballing. We decided to concentrate our attention to one of the last trends of alcohol misuse: eyeballing, which consists in the direct pouring of alcoholic substances on the ocular surface epithelium (vodka is currently the most commonly used alcoholic drink for this purpose). We chose to focus on using VR glasses in order to inform and raise awareness especially among young people about this trend and its potential permanent negative consequences (including blindness) with the broader goals of preventing its spread and reducing alcohol misuse and abuse.

After we decided on our project's focus, we made a plan for the project and divided the roles.




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