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The New VA Health Plan Is Second Life

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-reincarnation dept.

theodp writes "Remember when Catbert informed Dilbert that the new company health plan is Google? In another case of life imitating Dilbert, combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are being provided with a US Army-sponsored virtual world in Second Life (slideshow) to help deal with their condition. Developed by USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, it is hoped that the veterans-only virtual world Coming Home and its planned activities will promote conversations that can help reduce PTSD. The Avatar will see you now, Sergeant."

12 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Good idea, if you ask me. by RobVB · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a logical continuation of conference calls and working from home. It's like going to a self help group meeting, without actually having to drive over there (saving time, money, and polar bears). That, and you have an additional layer of anonymity, which might help lower the threshold for newcomers who are too ashamed of joining.

    I think a similar system could work very well for other groups such as AA and NA.

    --
    I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
    1. Re:Good idea, if you ask me. by jd2112 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think a similar system could work very well for other groups such as AA and NA.

      Great idea! Now if I can only talk Charlie's Bar into providing free Wi-Fi...

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    2. Re:Good idea, if you ask me. by redneckHippe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As a Vet and a recovering addict, I think this is a great idea. I used to go to NA meetings on IRC back in the day and I used to have my own world in Activeworlds http://www.activeworlds.com/, where me and some friends would get together for a small meeting. It was great, especially when someone was out of town and couldn't make a meeting in meatspace. I'm surprised it's taken this long for the VA to figure this out. LD

      --
      It'll quit hurtin' once the pain stops.
    3. Re:Good idea, if you ask me. by slimshady945 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm surprised it's taken this long for the VA to figure this out.

      As a vet and recovering addict, I would have thought you'd be more familiar with the VA than that.

  2. I'm not sure about this. by Shag · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People with PTSD have a hard time dealing with reality. I'm not sure that helping them escape from reality into some virtual world is really going to solve things.

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
    1. Re:I'm not sure about this. by machinelou · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I have a Ph.D. in psychology and I can tell you that the notion of "escaping from reality" is a concept borrowed more from pop-psychology than science. The fact of the matter is, these people need exposure to cues that trigger traumatic memories in a context that is safe, supervised, and controlled. Talking about roadside bombs is an important first step but far less immersive (and less effective) for later parts of therapy than being part of an animated scene where patients get to re-experience a convoy-support mission.

    2. Re:I'm not sure about this. by Gregoyle · · Score: 3, Informative

      I work in the military as a health care provider.

      One of the biggest problems for military specific PTSD patients is the feeling that no one around them understands. And in most cases, they are right. No one really does understand, nor could they.

      Once someone is medically retired they lose the connection of having buddies around them who've been through the same or at least similar experiences. There aren't many people in civilian life to connect with.

      I think using a Second Life style interface for soldiers and veterans (especially veterans for the reasons I've mentioned above) is a great idea. It provides an opportunity for people to connect with others who have similar experiences. I think it would probably be even more effective to have a game where people are actually doing something rather than just sitting around talking to each other; many veterans will reject something like this as just another "group therapy" session.

      Now a PTSD only Halo server or something would be great. You could even have separate servers for guys blown up in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. You could have an "I hate MRAPs but I still have my legs" server. The possibilities are endless. If you allowed the soldiers/vets to make their own designations they would probably scandalize those who've never been in the military :-).

      --

      "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."

  3. Why use Linden Labs? by machinelou · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've been following a lot of similar stories recently and I don't understand why agencies and institutions wouldn't build on an opensource infrastructure that they can control (e.g., something like openlife). What happens if Linden labs goes belly-up?

    1. Re:Why use Linden Labs? by westlake · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've been following a lot of similar stories recently and I don't understand why agencies and institutions wouldn't build on an opensource infrastructure that they can control (e.g., something like openlife)

      Linden Labs has experience and resources.

      Linden Labs clients include:

      British Petroleum
      Wells Fargo
      NOAA
      The government of Ontario
      Naval Undersea Warfare Center
      CIGNA
      Kraft
      Unilever
      Disney
      Northrop Grumman
      Kelly Services
      Cisco
      IBM
      Intel
      Microsoft
      Toshiba
      British Telecom
      Nokia

      Second Life Work

      Openlife is in beta and looks it.

    2. Re:Why use Linden Labs? by vadim_t · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because opensim is unprofessional.

      Quality-wise, the existent grids run very badly, with very common crashes, asset loss, bad performance, region crossing issues...

      Development is unprofessional. The developers pulled an april fools day prank that caught by suprise several companies depending on their work. It wasn't an april fools day checkin either, but a change prepared weeks in advance, set to trigger on April 1. Which made it seriously hard to figure out what was going on.

      Then there are the rumors about the developers keeping certain functionality intentionally broken, to make sure the project is hard to use seriously for free.

      As much as I like Open Source, the fact is that at the time, Linden Labs has a much better infrastructure, better code, and a much better team to support it.

  4. Then who will cure the Second-Life PTSD? by EEBaum · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps they'll recover from the war-related PTSD, but you've introduced a whole other traumatic situation by bringing Second Life into the mix. How long will it take our brave veterans to get over the horror of bombardment via millions of floating penises?

    --
    -- I prefer the term "karma escort."
  5. As someone who has PTSD by TheBilgeRat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd have to say it really is probably up to the individual soldier whether that will work for him or not. Everyone handles it differently, and self-medicates differently. Many of my old comrades cannot watch war-related movies or watch/play FPS video games like COD, GRAW, etc. I say go for it-if it helps just a few people it would be worth it.