Using VR Simulation to Build Workforce Capacity and Promote Resiliency in Working with Clients with SUD

Rudolph et al (2014) suggest Virtual Reality (VR) simulation allows participants the opportunity to take learning risks and "practice at the edge of their ability, within an unfamiliar and possibly confusing environment...[and] tolerate not knowing the exact answers to complex questions" (p.339). These are the very learning challenges consistently faced by professionals working in the field of addiction and recovery. Social workers work with substance-engaged clients across agency settings, which requires a unique understanding of addiction as a biopsychosocial challenge that affects not only the individual directly, but all those with whom the client interacts across systems (e.g., co-workers, immediate and extended family, community members, etc.), and requires unique skills to engage, assess and intervene effectively. VR simulation offers the unique opportunity for inter-professional group decision-making and support in providing care, offering a context where immediate feedback around decision-making, as well as the opportunity for alternative decisions, can be experienced. In this workshop, participants will: 1) learn about the life cycle of VR case design and development; 2) gain knowledge about student learning objectives and skills that VR simulation experiences offer; 3) receive an example student learner checklist that can be used in assessing demonstrated skill competencies; 4) learn about the results from a VR simulation case evaluation with a cohort of specialization year social work students (N=28); 5) be invited to enter into a custom-designed social work VR simulation case wearing an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, and to interact with two clients being seen at a Family Resource Center. Basic VR simulation Custom Case Overview: Jerome, 19-year-old, refugee from Uganda, lives in a high opioid abuse, impoverished neighborhood. His father is deceased, and his mother remarried a middle-aged Caucasian man who struggles with an opioid addiction. Jerome has a younger half-sister, Namazzi (age 12). Namazzi's biological father is not in their lives. Last month, their mother, Salma, went back to Uganda to care for her dying mother and has been unable to return to the U.S. Jerome lives on his own but is very close to his half-sister. Namazzi told Jerome that her stepfather has been sleeping a lot and there isn't much food in the house. At school, she has trouble concentrating because she is hungry. Concerned, Jerome went to the home and saw that his stepfather needed some type of help. Not knowing what to do, Jerome took his stepfather to the ER. VR case simulation offers important opportunities for the larger inter-professional, paraprofessional, and community health workforce. We envision inviting peer support specialists and recovery coaches, critical to the existing behavioral health workforce, to participate in similar VR simulation trainings in the future. For example, VR simulations could be used to practice MI skills routinely employed in recovery coach sessions, to help peer providers understand ways to manage stigma, adhere to boundaries, assess for suicide and develop appropriate safety plans, and engage in inter-professional team decision-making around complex cases, which could offer peer providers a standardized skillset in these key skill domains across state-level curricula.