| | NOVEMBER 20208UTLOOKHealthcare Tech IN MY OPINIONVR, AR, and MR in Behavioral Health The X-Factor:By Alires J. Almon, Director of Innovation, Mental Health Center of DenverMany behavioral health care organizations are facing the reality of limited resources to support the growing demand for service. The behavioral health workforce has declined by 14% in the last decade and is not showing signs of a trend reversal, just as the demand for support is steadily rising. Mental health, once the realm of quiet and hushed conversation, is now an open topic of discussion. This open discussion encourages more people to seek treatment, which creates more demand for service and support.At the Mental Health Center of Denver, we recognize the challenge that the convergence of these issues presents. Our solution? Use technology as a force multiplier for the service we provide and to drive positive impact in the following areas: increasing access to services, increasing client engagement with treatments, and ensuring the efficacy of treatment. Mental Health Center of Denver has explored these new avenues by establishing an Innovation Technology Lab as a formal part of the organization. It is housed in the heart of Colorado's health care entrepreneurial hub ­ Catalyst Healthcare Technology Innovation campus. The goal is to use this environment to help the organization think outside the box by sitting side by side with other health care innovation labs and driven entrepreneurs who approach health care in very different ways. Our organization is the only behavioral health provider in the building, offering us a unique two-way exchange of knowledge. The reality of this new behavioral health landscape is that the people we serve are changing. The influences and inputs to their well-being are processed in a way that is very different than those that are providing the service. The younger generation is digital natives ­ they process their world in a way that is based on multi-tasking and parallel processing ­ an ability to streamline their world virtually as a way to maximize their real-world experience. To be effective providers, we must understand what that processing means and provide a countermeasure to negative effects by using those same processing inputs. The XR world is one that may be very comfortable and comforting for the people we serve, and we are utilizing that to our advantage. The X factor in these new computer-generated realities is that it provides a full spectrum of service ­ from the total immersion of virtual reality (VR) to the next level of openness in augmented reality (AR), and also the manipulation of virtual world artifacts inside the real Although there are limits to any technology, our willingness to explore the therapeutic innovation of an XR toolkit allows us to go above and beyond to meet our communities' expectations
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