Social Participation of Filipinos: Basis for Designing Virtual Environment for Depressive Patients

Abstract

Concerns over depression has grown in the Philippines. It is a mood illness that is frequently linked to intense sadness and diminished pleasure. Traditional psychological interventions are used to diagnose and treat it. There are approaches that integrates immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) which offers promising applications in medicine. VR is an immersive technology that creates environments and models for simulating realistic experiences. VR environments can be customized; hence it should fit a certain form relative to its users, Filipinos in this context. The design and development are based on the common social participations of the Filipino respondents in this research. Furthermore, the relationship between the users' demographic profile and degree of social interaction is highlighted since it impacts the factors in design development. Findings result to social communication, phone conversations with friends and family, visiting friends and family, dining out at cafés and restaurants, going to class, and church visits are all part of the respondents' social structure. A computer application that enables 3D model production is used to build conceptualized VR environment designs.