Virtual Reality comes to the Rehabilitation Centre of Mulhouse (CRM)

Virtual Reality comes to the Rehabilitation Centre of Mulhouse (CRM)

In support of its Vocational Training trainees with neurodevelopmental disorders, including people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the Mulhouse Rehabilitation Centre offers
virtual reality workshops.
The Rehabilitation Centre of Mulhouse (CRM) has more than 400 trainees with disabilities (motor, sensory, psychological, cognitive) who are yearly guided and trained, from CAP to Baccalaureate +5, by the vocational training organization.
Among them is a growing number of people with one or more neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), including people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A reality that has led the CRM to equip itself, for more than a year, with virtual reality software, used in both group and individual workshops. This answer is not a gimmick.

Immersion

“Virtual reality is about video games, medicine, military domain, but also, increasingly, about care and therapy,” says Laurence Bilz, neuropsychologist at the CRM. These virtual reality software allow users to be immersed in a 3D environment, with a 360-degree vision, in which the person can interact.
They make it possible to build adapted and evolving scenarios, according to the needs of everyone. If the environments are artificial, they are very realistic, everything is configurable.” The scouting work is done hand in hand: the trainees likely to join these workshops, as part of their courses, are referred by the trainers “If the final objective is to allow our trainees to access employment in the long term, the CRM’s mission is also to support them in their daily life, continues Laurence Bilz. Virtual reality allows you to create an immersive situation, to train in close collaboration with a therapist, to reduce anxiety, phobias, stress management, emotional management, planning, mobility, etc. »

“Soothed”, “de-stressing”

“Soothed”, “de-stressing”… The words used by Julien, Cindy and Thomas, CRM trainees who have used immersive headsets and virtual reality tools, testify to the effectiveness of the workshops set
up by the CRM with the financial support (21,352 euros) of the Orange Foundation. “Since its creation, the Rehabilitation Centre of Mulhouse has been involved in the vocational guidance and training of people with disabilities,” says Tom Cardoso, the CEO of CRM.
This is in line with the wish of the founder Marguerite Mutterer, (who died on March 26 2024 at the age of 103 years), to improve the learning conditions and access to employment of our 416 trainees with disabilities. The CRM is fully in line with this innovative project consisting of integrating virtual reality into learning, for people with autism or other developmental and cognitive disorders.”
Among the many guests present at the presentation of these workshops that are not quite like the others, Marie Hottinger, deputy mayor of Mulhouse in charge of Innovation and Digital Affairs, sees them as a demonstration of a city that “dares to innovate and bring digital technology and health together, in a supervised way to improve the daily lives of people with disabilities and the lives of all”. According to CRM projections, this investment would allow 175 people to participate in these workshops, including 15 autistic people identified
internally to date. “A figure likely to increase, due to greater efficiency in diagnosis,” says the Rehabilitation Centre of Mulhouse.