Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      The welcome center for the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience is based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. (Photo courtesy of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology)'Virtual world' helps with post-traumatic stress
                        
                        
                        The welcome center for the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience is based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. (Photo courtesy of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        A virtual Afghan street is featured in the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. (Photo courtesy of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology)'Virtual world' helps with post-traumatic stress
                        
                        
                        A virtual Afghan street is featured in the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. (Photo courtesy of the National Center for Telehealth and Technology)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

'Virtual world' helps with post-traumatic stressPublished Jan. 19, 2011
                    
                    By Cheryl Pellerin
                    
                    
                    American Forces Press Service
            **WASHINGTON --**Defense Department officials are using virtual-world interactivity to educate and help warfighters and others who are reluctant to seek more direct care to deal with post-traumatic stress, said an official at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, also known as "T2."
During a recent telephone briefing from the center's headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Greg Reger, a clinical psychologist and acting chief of the center's innovative technology applications division, said the kinds of immersive experiences available in virtual worlds, such as the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life, are designed to appeal to tech-savvy service members and their families.
"Far too many of our warriors come home and, despite difficulties they are having, are not going to come and see a psychologist, a social worker, a psychiatrist," Mr. Reger said.
According to the center's website, many researchers have declared traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress to be the "signature wounds" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 19 percent of service members returning from combat screen positive for psychological health problems, and just more than half seek help, the website says, noting that barriers for those who don't seek help include perceived stigma, physical access barriers and limited resources.
"There's a lot of great work going on at DOD to address stigma, but it is still an issue," Mr. Reger said. "So we desperately need solutions to get resources into the hands of those who will not give us the opportunity to provide them basic care."
Virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments where users, as representations of themselves called avatars, can interact with each other and build and interact with objects and activities.
"An avatar is basically a computer-generated representation of oneself," Mr. Reger said, adding that users create these computer characters to navigate around the environment and to explore and learn.
The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in Second Life, is an immersive, interactive learning activity that is open to the public and educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress.
The graphics-dense immersive simulation requires a broadband Internet connection, he said. Users must download a copy of the Second Life world and then can access the world from any computer with a broadband connection.
When avatars come into the virtual space, Mr. Reger said, they land at a welcome center that offers information about different deployment-related difficulties and a map of activities available in the T2 virtual experience.
"The cornerstone of the experience is when they leave that area and go into an area that teaches about the causes of post-traumatic stress disorder," Mr. Reger said. "They enter a space where they get into a Humvee and are taken through a computer-generated simulation that includes (intense fighting on an Afghan street and) an explosion.
"As this occurs," he continued, "they receive audio instruction about what we think causes post-traumatic stress disorder, and this sets the stage for the rest of the experience."
Users then take a simulated flight home, during which they watch a video about post-traumatic stress. They land at a shopping mall, where each store offers an activity that illustrates a symptom and how it may affect daily life.
For example, Mr. Reger said, in the mall is a mattress store.
"If you go into the store, you have an opportunity to lie down on a mattress and a video pops up over the avatar's head that illustrates a re-experiencing of the traumatic event they experienced earlier during the simulation," he said. "Then information is presented on the nature of trauma-related nightmares and sleep disturbances."
The environment uses a range of activities to simulate symptoms and help visitors determine if they or a loved one need care, and offers information about where to go for more direct assistance.
"Second Life provides the opportunity to interact with anyone who is in that space. Any warrior who goes in there will be able to talk with whoever is in that space," Mr. Reger said.
"We know that many of the difficulties that our warriors have result in increased social isolation and diminished interest in getting outside the home and interacting with other people," he added. "We do wonder about the potential in this space to really get some of these folks connected with each other in a meaningful way that might be helpful."
The National Center for Telehealth and Technology is a component of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, which leads a collaborative global network to promote the resilience, recovery and reintegration of warriors and their families.
"We created an environment that lets people learn by doing, rather than reading text and watching videos on two-dimensional websites," said Kevin Holloway, the psychologist who led T2's virtual-world development. "They can learn something new each time they visit."

Related Links
        T2 Virtual PTSD Experience
            
            National Center for TeleHealth and Technology
            
            Study ties problems to post-traumatic stress
            
            DOD unveils smart phone mental health application Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                SecAF, CSAF, CMSAF begin Indo-Pacific trip focused on ACE
                    
                    DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fightInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil