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Tania is 33 years old and has Huntington's disease, a degenerative illness that hinders movement and causes cognitive and even psychiatric disorders. Her condition worsened in 2020 and since then she has been one of the users of the home help service in Mijas.
Her mother Isabel is her regular carer and the two of them strive to enjoy life as much as they can. They are aware that catching a plane and going on holiday for a few days is almost impossible but that doesn’t stop them dreaming. When Tania was asked where she would like to go she knew immediately. Paris.
Last week she was able to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time, as if she were standing in front of it, but without leaving her living room sofa. This was all thanks to virtual reality glasses which she used to climb to the top of the Paris monument and contemplate the marvellous views of the city. She also took a trip on a boat down the Seine, just like any other tourist.
The virtual tour only lasted a few minutes but Tania absolutely “loved it”. “What did you like more, looking from the top of the tower or looking up at it?” asked the psychologist who accompanied her during the trip and who was in charge of managing the virtual reality programme. “I liked it all,” said Tania, who already has her next holiday planned, to Rome.
This initiative is a pilot project proposed by Malaga-based company BCM, the current contractor of the home help service in Mijas. The company’s idea is to apply this virtual reality therapy to the 604 home help users it is currently serving in the town.
"We are talking about people who have mobility limitations, many of whom are elderly and have never travelled before," explained José Delgado, the coordinator of the home help service.
Delgado adds that this programme, named ‘A Window to Infinity’, was created as a fun recreational activity for its users. “We realised that there were people who in their daily lives did not move on their own until you put the virtual reality glasses on them and they started to turn their heads from one side to the other. That’s when we started the research project we are currently developing to see to what extent this programme has an impact on patients’ emotions.”
What the company wants to demonstrate with its research is that such activities improve the patient's mood, which has a direct impact on their attitude towards the disease and its development.
“It is a way of giving people with disabilities the opportunity to feel and perceive what a non-disabled person feels,” said the mayor of Mijas, Ana Mata, during the presentation of the project. Mata stressed the need to invest in community initiatives and explained that soon there will be a new allocation of the home help service, so she encouraged the companies bidding for the contract to support this type of projects.
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