The Brain Recovery Zone is a virtual reality headset. It is designed to help manage emotions and anger, to aid with fatigue management and to assist with communication difficulties post-stroke. It contains a number of different modules in a variety of areas, including:
We were recently asked to review the Brain Recovery Zone. We are always happy to review products that can potentially benefit stroke survivors, so we asked Toni and Jack, two stroke survivors from our community to trial the headset and technology for a few weeks and let us know how they got on.
Toni had two strokes in 2016 aged 42, and a further stroke in 2017. She initially lost her speech, has suffered from significant fatigue, and still has a lack of movement on her left-hand side.
Jack had a stroke aged 24 in 2017. He lost the use of his left-arm completely, and continues to suffer from fatigue.
Toni: I was excited as I have never used any virtual reality before.
Jack: It looked quite cool and interesting.
Toni: Initially it was a little difficult to open the box with one hand! The device also needed headphones which weren’t supplied, and the charging device came with a 2 pin plug. I also struggled to get instructions, and it was only when I turned the way that I was facing (with the headset on) that these came up. I contacted Brain Recovery Zone when it wasn’t clear about what I should be attempting with some functions, and they immediately explained everything to me.
Jack: Very simple. It only took about 20 minutes, although it would be easier for someone with some previous tech. set-up experience.
Toni: I did speech therapy to be begin with, talking through different sounds and how to get your mouth moving. I looked at different scenes such as the Northern Lights and the Space Theme. I watched the videos explaining about what a brain injury and a stroke is, and what fatigue is.
Jack: I mainly did sensory activities, looking at different areas such as gardens, shops and train stations. These gradually got busier and noisier, and felt realistic to real world settings.
Toni: It was all enjoyable, although at my stage of recovery I’m not sure I feel the need to do some of the exercises or view the videos again.
Jack: I liked being able to put yourself into a situation where it felt like being in the real world but without actually being in the real world – it was realistic but I had the control of being able to remove myself if it got too busy and too much to cope with.
Toni: This would have been brilliant then – after my strokes I had speech exercises and speech and language therapy but I don’t remember anyone teaching me with different sounds as this device does. I also struggled with background noise then, so the exercises where you see how long you can cope with different scenarios would have been very helpful!
Jack: The sensory exercises would have really helped me then.
Toni: Yes, more exercises would have been helpful. Parts of this felt a little passive, so anything where you were challenged to improve on scores would be of benefit. In the speech section, it would have been helpful to practice sentences and tongue twisters
Jack: Definitely, I have done these previously with a psychologist so I know they are useful.
Toni: It was great to have something different to do, to take you away from the real world completely, so it’s a great idea!
Jack: Just by using the headset – I found it to be more a case of doing an enjoyable activity as opposed to aiming towards a specific target.
Toni: Probably not – I enjoyed it but don’t feel the need to repeat many of the exercises. But I took this to my local Different Strokes group where people at different stages of their recovery tried it, and a number of people commented how enjoyable it was, including one person who wants to get one!
Jack: Yes, if I kept the device I would use it most days.
Toni: I would look at having more challenges, more game playing etc. In the first 6 months post-stroke this would have been really helpful, it would take your mind of everything that you can’t do and would help you to get through this period. In the longer-term, I would want there to be more challenges on here to use it regularly.
Jack: Not particularly, it was an enjoyable experience and I’d definitely recommend this. It would also be very helpful to have these on acute stroke wards when people are unable to get out into the world.
Brain Recovery Zone work in partnership with Different Strokes and in exchange for this review have provided a financial contribution. However, they have had no input into the content of this review which is entirely based on feedback given by two stroke survivors who tested the product.
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