What is it about?
In 2019, the WHO reported 970 million individuals globally suffering from mental health disorders. While the metaverse could offer a space to deliver much-needed mental health care, it may also pose potential mental health risks. In this paper, we propose a prospective categorisation of mental health conditions with regards to the metaverse and extended reality technologies, and we discuss potential mental health risks and opportunities they might pose.
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Why is it important?
Now is the time to make the necessary adjustments to the design and frameworks for the metaverse. To move this cause forward, we discuss the potential for emerging digital technologies such as the metaverse to aid in mental healthcare. We highlight the potential for health care provision, but also raise concerns about potential mental health risks associated with the metaverse, and emphasize the need for preventive measures, education, and awareness-raising to protect mental health in this space.
Perspectives
This paper was the foundation for a panel discussion at the ACM SIGCHI conference 2023 in Hamburg. It was a great pleasure to listen to our invited panelists and audience members use our paper as a springboard for their discussion on which steps we can and should now take to develop resiliency to risks and fully tap into (potential) opportunities for mental health in the metaverse.
Moritz Borrmann
International Psychoanalytic University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mental Health and the Metaverse, April 2023, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3583750.
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