When faced with a loved one or someone in their care who is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, many people feel helpless and unsure of what to do. However, there are practical plans and tools available that anyone can learn and use to help prevent suicide. One such tool is a resilience/security plan.
VR Help is a virtual reality simulation designed to provide accessible training and testing for users in building a resilience/security plan to prevent suicide. The aim of VR Help is to train those with the authority to communicate a resilience/security plan effectively and prevent suicide and depression by practicing with an avatar "acting" as a depressive patient with suicidal tendencies. The plan is based on six concrete stages, and after theoretical training, those with authority can practice the simulation and prepare for real-life situations.
Originally developed as academic research, VR Help has since been adopted as a product sold to The Ministry of Defence. The research on VR Help was presented at the 22nd ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3514197.3549613
