The University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work has integrated virtual reality (VR) into its online Doctorate of Social Work program to enhance student engagement by immersing them in simulated environments. This initiative includes VR applications for social justice and empathy-building, featuring simulations like “Traveling While Black” and “Notes on Blindness.” As part of this effort, they commissioned Workinman Interactive to develop a VR application for teaching trauma-informed care in a clinical setting.
Trauma-Informed Spaces is an immersive VR experience that teaches the principles of trauma-informed care and their integration into physical spaces. Users explore a virtual human services clinic from a client’s perspective, understanding how environmental factors like lighting, signage, seating, and accessibility impact clients. This experience helps professionals in human services, including social workers, nurses, doctors, clinicians, teachers, and support staff, identify and modify physical factors to improve client care.
The app is available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store, and provides an immersive experience when used with Google Cardboard-like accessories.
“The Google Cardboard platform,” says Matt Conheady, Executive Producer at Workinman Interactive, “while a bit old-fashioned in the rapidly-evolving VR space, is accessible to anyone with a phone, and the best way to get the app in the hands (or strapped to the head, more accurately) of as many students as possible.”
A higher-fidelity version of the app was also developed for the Meta Quest platform, which is used in the classroom.
“The app was first developed for the Meta Quest and offers full motion controls and a highly immersive experience,” Matt says, “for the Google Cardboard version, motion controls aren’t available. Our VR team reworked the user interface to support the limited controls of the platform, while ensuring no compromises with the experience and curriculum.”
The app, which takes students through a mental health clinic, features six rooms, an interactive receptionist, and many details designed to reinforce trauma-informed curriculum. In Instructional Mode, students can choose to be placed in a version of the clinic that has very good trauma-informed practices, one that is so-so, one that is very bad, or a randomized one that mixes the elements. In Assessment Mode, educators can set up spaces and gauge the performance of students.
Workinman Interactive is a video game and entertainment app studio in Rochester, NY, specializing in engaging educational content.
“It’s pretty common we are approached by clinical organizations and medical companies for experiences like this,” Matt says. “The content can sometimes start out as dull or repetitive, so our clients seek out ways to keep things exciting and to keep users coming back. That’s where our experience in games comes in handy.”
Workinman Interactive offers a full range of services, including Augmented and Virtual Reality development (often combined in the acronym “XR”) and educational software, from games to eLearning courses for any platform.
Trauma Informed Spaces can be downloaded for free from Google Play or Apple App Store.
