As she pedaled in a virtual reality journey that took her to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Great Barrier Reef and Cairo, Egypt, Arlene Carlon’s mind traveled, too.
The 85-year-old widow sat with her back to a wall in a small Camarillo classroom with her granddaughter and two others. All of them wore green VR headsets, clutched small game controllers in each hand and placed their feet on a pedaling device called a desk cycle.
The gear, the cycling and the destinations are part of a new, free virtual reality program offered by the Camarillo Health Care District. It’s aimed at providing older adults with exercise, adventure and an antidote to isolation.
Carlon and others cycled across cityscapes that looked like Oz, rode a rickshaw in Cairo and snorkeled off the coast of Australia in the Coral Sea. The adventures made her think of all the places she and her husband, Willie Carlon, once visited. The couple traveled to the Caribbean, Italy, Spain, Germany and Rome.
“He said, ‘We have to enjoy life a little more,” she remembered with a smile after the program and her journeys ended — at least for the day.
He died nearly five years ago. They were married more than 63 years. She lives in Lompoc, her husband’s hometown, but can’t drive anymore and doesn’t get out as much as she once did.
She spends much of her time with granddaughter Alicia Escobedo, a registered nurse who lives in Camarillo. Escobedo suggested they take the virtual reality program.
“I just wanted to do something I could do with her,” Escobedo said after the program. “I think it’s awesome. It gives her a chance to interact with other people.”
The “Pedaling the Planet” program is funded through an $11,000-plus grant from the city of Camarillo. It’s part of the health care district’s virtual reality programming that launched three years ago as a way to help older adults travel around the world without leaving the classroom.
The district is a public entity with a mission of promoting community health. The purpose of the virtual reality offerings is to ease isolation and depression that can grow around holidays, said District CEO Blair Baker.
In the cycling program, participants exercise. They see new things. Perhaps most importantly, they do it with new friends.
“The value is the connections they make with that small group,” Baker said.
Two years ago, the virtual reality classes won an innovation award from the California Special Districts Association. More than 700 people have taken programs from an expanded menu that includes a travel club, a “Wonders of the World” program and a family and friends virtual reality night.
The programs have been offered not just at the district’s Camarillo campus but at assisted care facilities and senior living communities. Baker wants to offer classes to caregivers. She also believes virtual reality can be used as a teaching tool, helping nurses and other providers better understand what it’s like to have dementia.
“There are so many possibilities,” she said.
Others in the pedaling program on Nov. 24 included Linda Montgomery, 78, of Kauai, Hawaii, who came at the request of her sister Darlene Graves of Oxnard. Graves also invited her daughter, Monica Graves, a caregiver from Oxnard, to take the virtual reality journey. Darlene Graves watched and plans to participate in the program soon.
Before the travel to Australia and beyond, the participants pedaled on a wooden bridge that traversed seascapes in one montage and green fields in another. They raced each other in a game designed to boost cardio health. They aimed their game controls at the air, shooting virtual lasers at the balloons that emerged via their headsets.
“It’s like I’m in a cartoon video game,” Monica Graves said.
They pedaled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. They gazed across the Pacific Ocean from the Golden Gate Bridge.
“To the left, I think, is Alcatraz,” said Mariana Gutierrez, the district health promotion coordinator who led the program. She told them that if the virtual reality made them feel a little weird, taking off the headset was the solution.
As they pedaled, they spun their heads to take in the sights. They joked with each other and hummed snippets of songs, including “Jaws” during the underwater voyage at the Great Barrier Reef.
They were immersed in the journey.
“It felt real. It felt comfortable. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m there,’” Montgomery said.
For Carlon, it was a virtual trip down memory lane.
“It made me happy,” she said. “If that’s what they were trying to accomplish, they did it.”
Upcoming “Pedaling the Planet” programs will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 1, 10 a.m. Dec. 8, 2 p.m. Dec. 16 and 2 p.m. Dec. 30. To sign up for it or other classes, call 805-388-1952. For more information, go to www.camhealth.com.
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Older adults pedal away isolation in Camarillo VR program
Reporting by Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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