T2 Virtual PTSD Experience: A Virtual Worlds Environment to Educate Service Members and Veterans About Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Deploying Active Duty Service Members face multiple psychological health risks, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite a significant proportion of Service Members with psychological health needs, a number of barriers prevent access to education and treatment services available to them. These barriers include perceived stigma, physical access barriers, and psychological barriers. Web resources provide important information regarding psychological health issues and available resources but have limitations in the learning experience they can provide. Virtual worlds platforms, such as Second Life, offer unique affordances that may reduce some barriers to accessing psychological health education and care. They may allow for a unique immersive and interactive learning experience augmenting current web resources. One such virtual world environment, the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, is described. The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience aims to educate military service members, veterans, family, and peers about the causes, symptoms, and help available for combat-related PTSD. Reactions from visitors have been positive, with many reporting improved understanding of PTSD and motivation to seek care. Future directions for leveraging virtual worlds in the service of psychological health care are discussed.

Games for health & mHealth apps for police & blue light personnel: A research review

“…As documented in the introduction, there is a growing body of work surrounding the use and deployment of videogames by military veterans to combat behavioural change and PTSD. However, there is still a paucity in the literature surrounding the use and deployment of videogames by first responders/emergency services as noted by Holloway and Reger (2013), who have constructed a purpose-built environment in Second Life to educate various actors in the various issues and factors surrounding PTSD. The field of Games for Health has embraced the design, use, and development of videogames/environments for multiple health conditions, (Colder et al, 2018;Macleod and Sloan, 2017;Callejas-Cuervo et al, 2017;Holloway and Reger (2013).…”

“…However, there is still a paucity in the literature surrounding the use and deployment of videogames by first responders/emergency services as noted by Holloway and Reger (2013), who have constructed a purpose-built environment in Second Life to educate various actors in the various issues and factors surrounding PTSD. The field of Games for Health has embraced the design, use, and development of videogames/environments for multiple health conditions, (Colder et al, 2018;Macleod and Sloan, 2017;Callejas-Cuervo et al, 2017;Holloway and Reger (2013). Yet, there is very little research indeed that has explored the use of mHelath Apps, videogames, and virtual environments to support and combat PTSD and related issues by police personnel and emergency responders.…”

“…Regarding videogames and online environments (e.g. Second Life), there is a growing body of work surrounding the design approaches to videogames and PTSD (Macleod and Sloan, 2017;Holloway and Reger, 2013). Macleod & Sloan (2017) discuss and present a prototype to understand the potential benefits of using such an environment for PTSD self-help, and online virtual environments such as Second Life have been used as a means of facilitating interactive learning environments to educate 'visitors' about military/combat-related PTSD (Holloway and Reger, 2013).…”

“…The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience (Holloway and Reger, 2013) offers various actors (e.g. veterans, family members, peers and military personnel) the opportunity to learn and understand the causes and symptoms surrounding PTSD, and the respective authors note how the positive responses from the various actors who are engaging with the virtual environment, has resulted in greater understanding of PTSD, and the greater need for the provision of resources via offering additional care, advice and help (Holloway and Reger, 2013).…”

What role can videogames play in the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…The use of videogames to facilitate support and offer treatment for PTSD (Holloway & Reger, 2013;Macleod & Sloan, 2017) has garnered greater attention in recent years, with the use of videogames and online virtual environments. While the online virtual environment -Second Life, 2020 (https://secondlife.com/) has previously been used as a tool to offer support to military personnel and their families in an attempt to alleviate PTSD (Hemmerly- Brown, 2019).…”