Virtual Worlds Serve Military Mental Health Needs

By Dr. Kevin Holloway

Dr. Kevin Holloway

A Center for Deployment Psychology Training Facility

Members of the military, both veterans and those in service, and their family members deserve the most effective treatments for deployment- and combat-related PTSD, sleep disorders, depression and suicidal ideation. The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD (US) has piloted virtual-worlds based training programs for mental health providers serving this population.

Dr. Kevin Holloway is the Director of Training and Education at the Center for Deployment Psychology. A licensed clinical psychologist, he is particularly interested in technology solutions, including using virtual worlds to improve access to and quality of professional training. Dr. Holloway’s presentation at the Mental Health Symposium, “Virtual World Training for Mental Health Providers,” will be held from 2-3:30pm Pacific on Friday April 26. He will discuss CDP's synchronous and asynchronous Second Life training models and environments, and preliminary outcomes data regarding effectiveness.

Following Q&A will be an opportunity for the audience to tour two of CDP’s Second Life facilities, the Snoozeum and Operation AVATAR. These sites augment live, instructor-led, virtual training workshops for mental health providers learning evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

For more information about the Mental Health Symposium and the full schedule of sessions:

https://virtualability.org/mental-health-symposia/mental-health-symposium-2019/