New Project – CREAT Arts and Health Research Axis
Dr. Julia Chabot, geriatrician at St. Mary’s Hospital Center in Montréal and co-researcher of the Arts and Health Axis, initiated an innovative project in collaboration with Florence Troncy, Executive Director of La SAMS (Société pour les Arts en Milieu de Santé), and Dr. Olivier Beauchet, Head of the Arts and Health axis. The project, partially funded by the CREAT Research Chair, aims to assess the feasibility and explore the effects of classical music presented in video format through a virtual reality headset on the mental health of patients hospitalized in the Intensive Functional Rehabilitation Unit (IFRU) at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), as well as in the geriatric inpatient unit at St. Mary’s Hospital Center, where recruitment began in Spring 2024.
In practical terms, patients listen to and watch musicians perform classical music through a virtual reality (VR) headset. This immersive 15-minute intervention is repeated over two consecutive days. In parallel, a control group of participants listens to the music using audio headphones only. This randomized, parallel-group, bicentric clinical trial will include a total of 40 participants per centre (20 in the intervention group and 20 in the control group). Inclusion criteria include being over 60 years of age, having no acute conditions or psycho-behavioural disorders, and being able to understand and provide consent to participate in the study.
The expected results of this study may reveal significant benefits for the mental health of geriatric patients by demonstrating the feasibility of the intervention. These findings could pave the way for therapeutic innovations in hospital settings by integrating music and virtual reality as complementary tools to enhance patients’ quality of life and emotional well-being.
