Photo courtesy of U.S. Army.

The Apps for the Army (A4A) competition recently announced the winners for their first internal applications-development challenge, and DCoE’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) won gold in the morale, welfare and recreation category for their Telehealth Mood Tracker mobile application.

“We want to accommodate the military’s psychological health needs with 21st century technologies,” said Dr. Greg Gahm, director of T2. “Creating tools for wellness requires a working commitment between the psychologists and the technology specialists. I am proud of the T2 team for their accomplishment in the Apps for the Army challenge and their desire to support the military community with innovative and adaptive technologies.”

T2 MoodTracker allows service members to track their moods. Users can self-monitor their mood variations daily, weekly, monthly or even from hour to hour, which helps service members understand the impact of stress and common emotional reactions that follow a deployment.

Service members track their moods on a touch screen using a visual analogue scale which allows users to choose a point on a color continuum to reflect their current emotions, such as feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety or stress.

The application also has the capacity to store information which is helpful for service members who want to be able to share their information with a health care provider.

According to Dr. Robert Ciulla, psychologist and division lead, T2 MoodTracker is one of the initial tools in a series of mobile applications under development. “T2 recognizes the need to craft tools that are quickly accessed, self-paced and support confidential use,” said Ciulla.

Read more...

The commonly referred to fight or flight, or stress response, occurs when the mind and body are challenged by difficult situations known as stressors. In fact, the fight or flight response is a “normal” reaction to a challenge or threat.

While lingering or especially intense stress can exact a physical and mental toll, research confirms that relaxation exercises like diaphragmatic (“belly”) breathing, when used regularly, can manage stress, focus the mind, and improve overall health and well-being.

Subject matter experts at DCoE’s National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2), led by Dr. Gregory Gahm, are developing a mobile skill-rehearsal tool. The iBreathe application will guide users through a diaphragmatic breathing stress management technique.

Dr. Jennifer Alford, T2’s project lead for iBreathe, notes that smart phone users carry their phones an average of 14 hours a day. “Mobile platforms represent an exciting opportunity for deploying training tools that are readily accessible and available on-the-go,” said Alford.

Read more...

Doc Bender on top of the Ziggurat of Ur in Southern Iraq, in February 2009.

Dr. James Bender recently returned from Iraq after spending 12 months as the brigade psychologist for the 4-1 CAV out of Ft Hood. He served for four and a half years in the Army. During his deployment, he traveled through Southern Iraq, from Basra to Baghdad and many spots in between. He writes a monthly post for the DCoE Blog on mental health issues related to deployment and being in the military.

In a post for DoD Live last month, I covered resilience and actions you can take to enhance your psychological fitness. This month I’m covering how technology is being used to help treat service members who have a psychological health issue.

If you’ve spent a bit of time reading the DCoE Blog or our website, you’ve heard of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This anxiety disorder occurs in some people who have experienced an intense trauma, like combat. PTSD can be very debilitating and can last many years.

Prolonged Exposure therapy is a treatment for PTSD that has proved very successful in the past few years. The idea is to expose the patient to what originally caused the trauma in a controlled way where the patient is in charge of the situation. For example, say a soldier becomes very nervous when he hears gunfire because it reminds him of a sniper attack he experienced in Iraq. Part of treating him with Prolonged Exposure therapy would be exposing him to gunfire in a safe, controlled way, such as going to the rifle range and listening to the “pop” sound the rounds make.

Read more...

Cutting-edge virtual reality medical technology, the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system, will soon be available for patients at the new National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), which will hold its ribbon cutting ceremony next Thursday, June 24.

"CAREN allows the use of virtual reality to be incorporated into the care of wounded warriors and may assist in the return to duty and/or the reintegration process," said Sarah E. Kruger, a biomedical engineer and the CAREN operator for NICoE.

CAREN allows patients to work through a variety of skills after experiencing traumatic injuries, with the focus on promoting resilience and recovery. Troops returning from war are able to work through post-traumatic stress symptoms through a very carefully monitored virtual environment.

"The CAREN system contains an instrumented treadmill embedded into a six degree-of-freedom motion platform that synchronizes in real-time with a virtual environment projected onto a large, curved screen," according to Kruger.

Read more...

NICoE exterior rendering.

Please join us on Thursday, June 17, from 1300 to 1430 hrs EST, for a chance to hear about the new National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). We hope you’ll join us in our monthly webinar where we’ll discuss how this center will operate and how you can get involved in the future.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund has built and equipped NICoE, which is dedicated to the advancement of diagnosis, clinical care and research in warriors with complex combat related traumatic brain injury and psychological health issues. NICoE has been established to be the "hub" for exchange of expert ideas and initiation of innovative studies to provide hope for the restoration of quality of life for individuals with traumatic brain injury and psychological health issues and their families.

Read more...