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

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

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

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

"In meeting with [first responder] leaders, we were taken by several common themes. Leaders often shared that new recruits — once faced with the challenging on-the-ground realities of their work — were leaving the field at much higher levels 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 underlines the importance of the lab's work, Wright said. First responders also reported to him that preparing new recruits and experienced first responders alike for high-risk situations is often extremely costly and challenging.

That's where the power of technology can lend a hand.

"One example might be a fire responder who is caught in a fire and how to respond to that. A simulation allows you to figure out ways to a problem, to solve your way out of it, and to fail, including in situations where you [die in the simulation]."

Wright and the WSIB hope the training allows first responders, through repeated exposure and rehearsal, to not only get better at handling risky situations but also be more mentally equipped to handle the fallout that often comes with them.

"For people that come to us with a physical injury, we're able to get 87% of them back to work within three months," said Jeff Lang, the CEO and president of the WSIB. "When a first responder comes to us with a mental stress injury, just 40 per cent are ready to return to work in a year."

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

"While that tells you a lot about the volume of psychological impact to our first responders, the number doesn't tell you about the psychological pain that each person, their families, and their colleagues live with," said Lang.

The programs created by the lab won't be limited to the local region or Ontario, according to Fanshawe. They're expected to work and help those with mental health needs across North America.

On top of preparing first responders for intense situations, Wright noted virtual mental health supports can be used to bridge the gap between people with mental stress injuries seeking help and being able to speak with a mental health professional.

It's not Fanshawe's first foray into using XR for education. Earlier this year, the college opened the Diane Blake Centre 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 real world.

That push for integrating new technologies into the college's operations, including directly into courses, will continue, according to Peter Devlin, Fanshawe's president.

"I think you'll find already that there is a lot of technology in many of our programs. An example would be an XR welding machine that allows students to develop a level of confidence and skill at welding before they even pick 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.