Older adults gathered at the AT&T Connected Learning Center at Janet Goeske Foundation & Senior Center in Riverside, California, for a hands-on experience designed to show how virtual reality can open doors to connection and well-being.
Hosted by AT&T and Mynd Immersive, a leading provider of immersive digital therapeutics for aging adults, the event showed seniors how to safely use a virtual reality headset. For many, the experience was also a chance to try something new alongside friends and neighbors.
Attendees virtually traveled to meaningful destinations, including Paris, France, and Quito, Ecuador. One participant revisited her grandparents’ home in Greenville, South Carolina, while others went skydiving, watched a Broadway musical, played interactive games, or blasted off into space.
“We’re always looking for new ways to engage seniors and enrich their quality of life,” said Danielle Stevens, executive director of the Janet Goeske Foundation. “Our core programming focuses on providing a whole-person centered approach to health and wellness. By offering interactive experiences like this virtual reality demonstration, we hope to build digital confidence and empower the seniors we serve to explore new ways to learn, connect, and thrive.”
The event complemented Janet Goeske Foundation’s health and wellness programming, which includes more than 200 weekly activities across fitness, arts, lifelong learning, health education, support groups, and senior services.
Building Digital Confidence at Every Age
AT&T’s work with older adults extends beyond digital access. It focuses on helping build the confidence seniors need to stay connected and independent.
Since 2021, we have opened over 100 Connected Learning Centers (CLCs) nationwide, a crucial part of our $5 billion commitment to bridging the digital divide. CLCs are located within local community organizations, nonprofits, or public spaces and give community members of all ages internet access, computers, and digital literacy support at no cost. Four of our CLCs are located within organizations dedicated solely to serving older adults.
Additionally, AT&T collaborates with national organizations including Cyber Seniors, the National Council on Aging, and Older Adults Technology Services from AARP to offer hundreds of digital literacy workshops nationwide every year.
This support restores confidence and dignity when older adults get online, and when people feel capable, they’re much more likely to use technology to do the things that matter like connecting with family, managing appointments, accessing services, and more.
The event with Mynd Immersive supported our goals by giving participants a welcoming place to explore virtual reality, making new technology feel more accessible and less intimidating.
How Mynd Immersive Is Helping Seniors Stay Connected
Dallas-based Mynd Immersive has used immersive technology since its founding in 2016. Its mission is to empower aging adults in senior living communities, veteran homes, and those aging in place by making their window to the world bigger and their minds and bodies healthier.
Mynd Co-founder Chris Brickler saw the potential for virtual reality to do more than entertain. As the older adult population grows, many seniors face increased isolation and limited mobility, making it harder to connect with the people, places, and experiences that bring joy and purpose.
Mynd’s platform uses virtual reality headsets to turn passive screen time into active cognitive engagement. Seniors can visit museums, explore destinations around the world, attend concerts, engage in cognitive exercises, and participate in therapeutic activities designed to support well-being.
In one Mynd experience, a woman living with later-stage Alzheimer’s virtually returned to Paris, where she had honeymooned and later traveled with her family. Within moments, she began recalling familiar landmarks and family memories and was able to create a meaningful point of connection with her husband who was in the room.
Mynd’s benefits are clear. Research conducted by Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab in collaboration with Mynd Immersive and AT&T 5G Healthcare found that 74% of caregivers reported that the residents’ mood improved after using Mynd, and 79% of residents reported feeling more positive1.
“Our vision depends on reliable connectivity,” said Chris Brickler, co-founder of Mynd Immersive. “Because we serve older adults and veterans, we had to find a way to make our technology easily accessible and ready to use without added complexity. AT&T provides the speed, reliability, and reach that allow people to use our devices right out of the box, helping bring immersive experiences to those who need them most.”
AT&T Business helped Mynd meet its connectivity needs by using AT&T 5G to connect its headsets to the AT&T wireless network. AT&T hotspots provide portable, secure Wi-Fi through AT&T cellular data. The connectivity also helps Mynd deliver new content, manage devices remotely, and scale its platform as demand grows.
The Connectivity Behind Mynd’s Growing Reach
As Mynd expands across more than 800 healthcare facilities, rehabilitation centers, and Veteran Affairs medical centers nationally, reliable connectivity has become increasingly important – not just for delivering immersive experiences, but for enabling the data and analytics infrastructure behind the Mynd platform.
Mynd recently partnered with Select Rehabilitation, the largest provider of contract rehabilitation and consulting services in the U.S., with more than 20,000 physical and occupational therapy clinicians in 46 states and Washington, D.C. Together with AT&T connectivity, Mynd can securely connect and manage thousands of immersive devices across distributed care environments while capturing meaningful data on utilization, engagement, and therapeutic activity.
This creates a more valuable data layer across the Mynd ecosystem. The headset becomes the therapeutic endpoint, the network connects those endpoints, and the data transforms thousands of individual experiences into an intelligent healthcare platform. Over time, healthcare organizations can use these insights to better understand how immersive therapy is being used, how patients engage with specific therapeutic experiences, and how utilization and engagement may correlate with outcomes, creating the foundation for more clinically informed and personalized immersive care at scale.
Learn more about AT&T’s work with Mynd Immersive
Looking Ahead
More of the essential services people rely on every day are moving online, making it vital that older adults are not left behind. AT&T provides important resources through our small business partners, nonprofit partners, and CLCs to help seniors safely use digital tools to access essential resources and maintain their independence with confidence.
The event at Janet Goeske Foundation & Senior Center showed what is possible when community support and reliable connectivity come together. For older adults, it can create more opportunities to explore, take an active role in their care, and connect with the people and experiences that matter most.