Fanshawe College on Friday hailed a historic investment from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) as the start of a new era in which the London-based college will use emerging technologies to transform mental health care – and resilience – for first responders.

WSIB is providing $20 million to fund the creation of a 9,000-square-foot research lab at Fanshawe, called the WSIB Center of Excellence in Simulation of Immersive Technologies for Workplace Safety.

The lab will use augmented reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop and implement training tools to prepare future first responders for the realities of intense, high-risk situations. In addition to training students, the tools expected to be developed through the lab would provide value to veteran first responders and people in fields such as construction and manufacturing.

XR refers to a wide range of technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality that can be used to simulate a wide range of situations.

“In meeting with the (first responder) leaders, we were drawn to several common themes. Leaders often shared that new recruits – when faced with the challenging on-the-ground realities of their work – were leaving the field at much higher rates than in the past,” said Jeff Wright, Fanshawe’s VP of corporate strategy and business development.

“For many, the nature of the work was not at all what they expected.”

That’s a point that underscores the importance of lab work, Wright said. First responders also reported to him that training new recruits and experienced first responders alike for high-risk situations is often extremely expensive and challenging.

There, the power of technology can lend a helping hand.

“An example would be a firefighter who is caught in a fire and how to respond to it. A simulation allows you to find ways to get to a problem, work your way out of it, and fail, including situations where you (die in the simulation).”

Wright and the WSIB hope that the training allows first responders, through repeated exposure and rehearsal, not only to become better at handling risky situations, but also to be better equipped mentally to deal with the consequences that often accompany them.

“For people who come to us with a physical injury, we’re able to get 87 percent of them back to work within three months,” said Jeff Lang, CEO and President of WSIB. “When a first responder comes to us with a stress injury, only 40 percent are ready to return to work within a year.”

Since 2016, Lang said, the WSIB has received more than 12,000 mental stress injury claims from first responders.

“While that tells you a lot about the amount of psychological impact on our first responders, the number doesn’t tell you the psychological pain that each individual, their families and their colleagues are living with,” Lang said.

The programs created by the lab will not be limited to the local region or Ontario, according to Fanshawe. He is expected to work and help those with mental health needs in North America.

In addition to preparing first responders for intense situations, Wright noted that virtual mental health supports can be used to bridge the gap between people with PTSD seeking help and being able to speak with a mental health professional.

More technology in Fanshawe’s future

This isn’t Fanshawe’s first foray into using XR for education. Earlier this year, the college opened the Diane Blake Center of Excellence in XR for Healthcare, which develops training programs that put healthcare students in difficult situations without the possibility of life-threatening outcomes to train them for the world real.

That push to integrate new technology into the college’s operations, including directly into classes, will continue, according to Peter Devlin, Fanshawe’s president.

“I think you’ll already find there’s a lot of technology in a lot of our programs. An example would be an XR welding machine that allows students to develop a level of confidence and skill in welding before even picking up a real torch. The same thing will happen in other skilled trades,” Devlin said.

Development of the WSIB-funded lab is expected to begin in early 2025.