The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage, and return-to-work support for Ontario workers injured or ill due to their jobs. Funded through premiums from Ontario businesses, WSIB offers no-fault collective liability insurance and industry-specific health and safety guidance. As one of North America’s largest insurers, it covers more than five million workers in over 300,000 workplaces across Ontario.
Project Summary
Fanshawe College received a $20 million investment from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to launch the WSIB Centre of Excellence in Immersive Technologies Simulation for Workplace Safety. The centre will use extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI), and other technologies for the research and development of advanced safety training tools and mental health therapeutic supports for public safety personnel, positioning Fanshawe as a national innovation hub. Students and partners will collaborate to design, test, and deploy immersive simulations and AI tools.
The Challenge
Addressing Mental Stress Injury in High-Risk Workers
Public safety personnel (PSP), including police, firefighters, paramedics, and corrections officers, face significantly higher risks of mental health issues. Stigma, distance, and limited access to care often delay intervention. Current training emphasizes physical readiness but neglects psychological stress, crisis response, and coping under duress. Without realistic, safe simulations, recruits face a disconnect between training and real-world pressures, contributing to high attrition.
Innovation, Infrastructure, and Collaboration
Establishing the WSIB Centre required overcoming barriers such as developing XR/AI platforms for mental health simulations, designing safe stress scenarios, integrating interventions like avatar-led cognitive behavioural therapy and exposure therapy, coordinating cross-disciplinary teams, and ensuring advanced infrastructure. The $20 million WSIB investment is transformational yet finite, requiring sustainable partnerships and commercialization pathways. Construction began in early 2025, with full operations and program rollout planned for 2026.
The Solution
Rapid Mobilization and Strategic Design
Following the WSIB investment, Fanshawe’s leadership, CTS, CRI, and academic teams rapidly developed the infrastructure and programming plan. A 9,000-square-foot facility within Innovation Village was chosen, featuring motion capture labs, XR/VR simulation rooms, AI compute infrastructure, and flexible collaboration spaces. Programming is built on two pillars:
Immersive Simulation & Training Tools
Using XR headsets and virtual environments, trainees engage in realistic, high-stress PSP scenarios with motion capture, full-body tracking, and AI-driven feedback for adaptive, repeatable learning.
AI & Immersive Mental Health Interventions
Includes virtual CBT and exposure therapy modules, avatar-led support to reduce stigma, and integration with clinical pathways to enhance accessibility and care and reduce the impact of mental stress injuries.
Hands-On Learning, Research & Sustainability
Students from public safety, health sciences, IT, media, and business programs will co-develop, test, and commercialize tools. The centre will partner with public safety and mental health organizations to validate outcomes and expand applications to other high-stress sectors. Construction began in 2025; pilot programs will launch in 2026.
Impacts and Future Outlook of Immersive Training in High Risk Sectors
- Enables safer, repeatable, and scalable training for first responders using immersive technologies
- Introduces innovative, technology-based mental health support tailored to PSP needs
- Creates experiential and research opportunities for students across multiple disciplines
- Positions Fanshawe as a national leader in safety simulation and mental stress-injury mitigation
- Offers the potential to scale the model into other high-risk occupations, including those in private sector, throughout Canada
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