- Alexandra Whitwam - Senior Manager Campaigns and Digital Storytelling, Telstra Foundation
With nearly 40% of young Australians experiencing mental health challenges in the last year, new approaches to mental health care are becoming increasingly essential.
As part of its work in the youth mental health sector, leading youth mental health organisation Orygen Digital, started to look into how to make mental health support more accessible, immersive, and impactful for young people living with anxiety and depression.
The Orygen team started ideating how to use virtual reality (VR) in the therapy space and recruited a group of young Australians to help co-design what it might look like.
Mai Pham was part of the co-design group and spent time working on what became known as MIND — a gamified experience that takes clinical techniques and translates them into interactive VR environments.
“I was on the email list for Orygen projects as I knew I wanted to somehow be involved with the organisation,” Mai says. “I got an email about this project, and as a young person interested in mental health services and digital design, it felt like the right one for me. I felt intrigued by the possibilities that could come from the intersection between the two fields.”
The co-design journey
Mai’s involvement in the project began with a series of workshops where she and four other participants worked closely with product designers and mental health professionals to shape the project.
“In the first workshop, we brainstormed how VR could be integrated with mental health,” she explains. “We started by thinking about the connection between the two and what possibilities could emerge.”
As the sessions progressed, the Orygen team introduced generated images of how the platform might look into the co-design sessions. “At one session, they showed us around 30 different images with varying vibes, colours, and atmospheres,” Mai says. The group was then asked to give feedback on everything from the visual design to the types of sounds that would best suit a mental health-focused VR experience.
The workshops followed a collaborative, iterative approach, with Mai and her peers building on ideas from each session. “Each exercise built on the last, and I loved that they were really listening to us,” she shares. “We’d be given five options, we’d choose three, and then we’d dive into more detail on those.” By the end, their feedback shaped the final product, with Mai noting, “When I saw the demo, it felt very much like what we had discussed.”
The power of VR in mental health
MIND’s VR tools offer a fresh approach to mental health care, potentially addressing significant barriers to treatment. Mai believes the most important benefit will be accessibility. “People can use it in their own time, and it might be cheaper than traditional services,” she suggests. While MIND is not designed to replace therapy, it can provide valuable support for those who may not have access to regular mental health care or who need additional resources between sessions.
One key feature of MIND is the ability to practice techniques for dealing with negative thoughts and emotions in a fun and interactive way. “It’s a way to practice before stepping into a real-life situation,” Mai says. This ability to practice in a safe, controlled environment could help young people build confidence and reduce anxiety when they step out into the real world.”
A tool for young Australians living remotely
Another advantage of MIND is its potential for use in remote areas, where mental health services can be scarce. During the co-design process, one participant lived outside Melbourne (project HQ) and had a VR headset sent to them, highlighting how the platform could reach young people in underserved areas. “It could be really helpful for young people living remotely,” Mai notes, as it allows them to access therapy tools from anywhere.
As MIND continues to develop, it is set to be trialled in clinical settings and slowly scaled up. For those like Mai, who has been part of its creation, the journey has been rewarding and eye-opening. “Seeing all our ideas come to life in the demo was incredible,” she says. With its potential to transform youth mental health care, MIND has the potential to offer young Australians a new way to manage their mental health — one that’s engaging, immersive, and accessible to all.
About Telstra Foundation and Orygen Digital
The partnership between Orygen Digital and the Telstra Foundation focuses on leveraging technology to support youth mental health. Over the past decade, the Telstra Foundation has funded and supported Orygen Digital in developing innovative digital tools and services.
This partnership aims to make mental health support more accessible and effective for young Australians.
