Deploying a whole school approach to trauma awareness using VR

What do teachers, school lunchtime staff, reception, SENCO’s, school nurses all have in common? Yes you have guessed it, working with children. Yet so often only teachers and teaching assistants are offered additional training like trauma awareness. This is a shame as all school staff have contact with children and can benefit from extra support to understand complex child behaviours. Children in the care system or on the edge of care can display very challenging behaviour. These behaviours are often interpreted as naughty and the result of this means that children end up being placed in a pupil referral unit or be permanently excluded. This can severely impact on a child’s future outcomes and for those children who have already experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) it could be devastating.

To ensure that a school has a shared knowledge of trauma and neglect and how this impacts on children’s behaviour in the school setting Cornerstone and Southend Local Authority visited Greenway Primary School last week and ran a 2 day training session on trauma awareness using Cornerstone VR.

There was an evaluation survey conducted before experiencing the VR content and then we will survey the cohort again one month after the VR Trauma Awareness Training to see if there has been a attitudinal shift or any behavioural change at the school. Giving the school staff time to talk, reflect and experience and then have constructive discussion on what they would like to achieve as a school has been a great way to embed the knowledge within the school.

We will follow up this post with some analysis on the data collected by the evaluation in a months time so check in with us then to see what changes have happened in Greenways School. If you are interested in creating more trauma awareness in your organisation get in touch with us on info@thecornerstonepartnership.com

Can Virtual Reality (VR) really change behaviour?

Can Virtual Reality (VR) really change behaviour? Cornerstone are helping local government embed VR in learning and development programmes as well as real social work practice and have seen this technology radically transform the way people work and think…

The value of VR in training has long been recognised by the military, aerospace and resource industries to simulate situations too risky or impractical to recreate in the real world. VR is also widely used by video gamers and, more recently, the healthcare and automotive sectors have embraced the technology. Less visible has been the emergence of VR in other, traditionally lower tech, industries but that is changing as organisations start to see the potential for training, assessment and even therapy. Most recently VR has made its appearance in the social care and mental health space arena. VR in these instances not only aims to educate but, crucially, to drive behavioural change. Where there is an emotional context to the learning VR has been found to be an extremely effective tool. Enabling the user to ‘experience’ trauma, abuse and neglect through the eyes of a child, but in a safe, controlled space, allows the viewer to feel real emotions such as anger, fear and helplessness. This added emotional layer may make the experience richer and the learning deeper.

 By integrating VR into an intervention such as post-adoption support, Cornerstone VR™ allows social workers to engage with adoptive parents, foster carers and alternative care-givers to examine and reflect on the emotions elicited by the VR experience. We want everyone involved in caring for looked-after children to better understand what might lie behind a child’s behaviour. VR can help all stakeholders, including teachers and the judiciary, replace the notion of a naughty child with that of the traumatised child. 

After piloting for 12 months and working with 30+ local authorities in the UK, we have been very encouraged by the results and are looking at other opportunities where VR may assist interventions into areas which may be a function of early trauma and neglect. Could VR be employed as a preventative measure in children’s social care? What is the potential for working with birth families, care professionals, foster carers as well as children and young people involved with the criminal justice system?  We are confident that the answers lie in extensive research and collaboration with progressive local authorities, charities, academics, educators and law enforcement. We are keen to work with any individuals or organisations who see the potential for technology and skilled practise to deliver better outcomes for children in care. VR takes us a big step towards that ambition.

If you would like to find out more about how our products and services can help you with social work training and practice please contact enquiries@thecornerstonepartnership.com

Children's Minister calls on "really impressive" VR tool to be used by all social workers

Today I witnessed the virtual reality programme set up by Cornerstone which puts you into the inner world of a child suffering trauma and neglect. Harrowing, but I hope an immensely powerful tool for social workers. @markowers37 @cornerstonevr pic.twitter.com/rToYuhX0gx

— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) February 14, 2019