Some care institutions provide older persons the opportunity to visit their pasts in order to improve their health.

John Faulkner, 76, was becoming emotionally withdrawn before he arrived at Central Parke Assisted Living and Memory Care, the community where he lives in Mason, Ohio. He had once been an avid traveler, but cognitive decline ended that, and he became socially isolated. By the time Mr. Faulkner arrived at Central Parke, he would sit alone in his room for hours, according to Esther Mwilu, who organizes activities for the community.

His treatment plan for dementia-related anxiety included antipsychotic drugs and reminiscence therapy, a decades-old practice in which older adults engage with reminders of their youth — like music or personal photographs — meant to bring about memories and cultivate joy and meaning.

Mr. Faulkner was underwhelmed by the nostalgia. So the staff at Central Parke tried again but used virtual reality. While studies suggest that traditional reminiscence therapy can significantly improve the well-being of older people, V.R. has the potential to make it more immersive and impactful. By putting on a headset, Mr. Faulkner could walk along the virtual Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland, just as he’d done with his wife several years earlier.

That was a turning point. Now, three months later, he has a 45-minute V.R. reminiscence therapy session every Monday. Ms. Mwilu said he requires less medication for anxiety and is more social. He has even started teaching classes for other residents like how to make paper airplanes.

Roughly a half-dozen companies today focus on providing V.R. reminiscence therapy for seniors in care communities. One of the largest of these, Rendever, works with more than 450 facilities in the United States, Canada and Australia, while another, MyndVR, has partnered with several hundred.

They are part of a growing trend of using virtual reality in health care, including treating patients with trauma and chronic pain. And with the number of people over age 65 expected almost to double by 2060 in America, the need for technological aides like V.R. for elder care is only increasing. More than 11 million Americans act as unpaid caregivers for a relative with dementia. The middle-aged “sandwich generation,” juggling careers and multiple care-taking roles, is looking to V.R. and other technologies, such as robo-pets, for support.

Eddie Rayden of Rhode Island said his 91-year-old mother, Eileen, brightened when using V.R. to see the Cleveland neighborhood where she grew up. “She immediately lit up,” he said. “All of a sudden, she was standing in front of the house she hadn’t been to in 80-plus years.”

How it works

The concept of reminiscence therapy goes back to 1963. Many psychiatrists at the time discouraged anything that seemed like living in the past, but one, Robert Butler, who later founded the National Institute of Aging, argued that seniors could get therapeutic value from putting their lives into perspective. Since then, psychologists have increasingly recommended using old wedding videos or favorite childhood meals as tools to benefit older people, including those with dementia. Experts say seniors troubled by declines in short-term memory often feel reassured when recalling the distant past, especially their young adulthood.

Over the past decade, faster and more powerful computing have made virtual reality more realistic and have led to studies showing how older people can use V.R. to re-experience meaningful parts of their lives. In 2018, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that virtual reality reduced depression and isolation among seniors. Other studies have suggested that V.R. reminiscence improves morale, engagement, anxiety and cognition by stimulating mental activity, though it cannot necessarily reverse cognitive decline.

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Still, larger studies are needed before everyone over the age of 75 is putting on a headset. Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, is currently leading a clinical trial in 12 states to try to get more data at scale.

“I would never want V.R. to completely replace non-V.R. reminiscence therapy,” he said, but “different people need different tools.”

Senior communities today can pay companies for headsets and access to a library of virtual experiences, many of which are designed for reminiscence therapy. Seniors can participate individually or, more typically, in group sessions.

Prescriptions are not required, and participants often outnumber the headsets. Caretakers and researchers said they start to see benefits after multiple sessions over one to two months. Stephen Eatman, a vice president for Sunshine Retirement Living, which manages Central Parke, said the company’s use of antipsychotics has decreased as much as 70 percent in seniors using V.R. therapy.

In addition to reliving trips to places like Ireland, users can teleport to nightclubs that remind them of their youth. MyndVR offers visits to flamenco, ragtime, and classical music venues, complete with musicians and actors dressed in the style of the day.