Tampere company’s VR headsets help Lviv children heal from war trauma

Since spring, Lviv's Unbroken children's hospital has been using virtual reality headsets supplied by Tampere firm Atapley Europe to treat war-related trauma in children and adolescents.

Roughly 500 young patients receive counseling and therapy each month, and 50–60 require inpatient psychiatric care. Many suffer anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress after bombardments.

Psychotherapist Olha Ševtšenko says staff use trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and controlled exposure, which previously involved visiting bombed sites around Lviv. VR lets them recreate frightening scenes safely at the clinic.

Therapists also use the headsets to show calming nature and sea videos; these can help children mourn lost coastal homes. Kaija Puura, a child psychiatry professor at Tampere University, says the devices' immersive quality supports guided breathing and relaxation exercises. They can even simulate virtual outings for hospitalized children.

Atapley is negotiating the sale of multiple headsets and a software license with Unbroken, and similar VR solutions are already in use in Finnish child psychiatric departments in Tampere, Seinäjoki and Rovaniemi.

Hanna Williams from Save the Children warns escalating strikes are shrinking safe shelters for families. About one fifth of young people have been displaced inside Ukraine or abroad.

The work follows recent visits and demonstrations in Tampere, where local companies showcased rehabilitation and mental-health solutions to representatives from Lviv’s UNBROKEN hospital during a business and delegation visit. It also comes after a prior scouting trip by the hospital to the Tampere region to assess similar options to assess rehabilitation and mental-health options.