Video shrinks distance to mental health care

Five years ago when I started to make the videos on PTSD, it was with the understanding that the only way to reach people was by being where they are and not where I want them to be. Face to face is uncomfortable for many people, especially PTSD veterans used to being the ones others depend on and not easy to accept they need help from time to time as well. Online provides anonymity so they can open up without feeling as if their deepest, darkest secrets will end up leaving them vulnerable. I get a lot further getting them to understand what PTSD is and why they are going through most of it by emails and with using the videos than I ever could over the phone or in person. Not to say these are not useful approaches, but while they are fine for some people, most find it easier to open up with emails.

Now it seems as if the military has caught onto this approach. Give An Hour has been doing it online and many other groups have been following the same line of therapy. Put it this way, if it's easier to get them to understand what PTSD is online then it is also easier to treat them online too.

A majority of soldiers surveyed said they preferred that the person screening them was far away and that it heightened the sense of confidentiality, Venezia said.

“There’s some freedom, when you’re on the computer, to be who you want to be, who you are, and not necessarily have to feel uncomfortable about sitting 5 feet away from a provider,” she said. “And you don’t have to worry about going to the commissary and bumping into the guy you just told your deepest darkest secrets to.”

Video shrinks distance to mental health care

By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 13, 2010 10:32:16 EDT

When the soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, entered the post-deployment processing site, they sat down in a private room and had “face-to-face” conversations with mental health professionals thousands of miles away via video conference.

The Virtual Behavioral Health Program was part of a limited pilot program within Western Regional Medical Command. However, a senior Army leader said he would like the Army to explore and expand use of the technology, and he is not alone: The Veterans Affairs Department and the Defense Department’s National Center for Tele-health and Technology are studying how tele-mental health care might work.

Proponents see it as a means to address rising numbers of soldiers with PTSD, ease the stigma attached to mental health issues and bridge gaps between troops at rural posts and doctors in urban facilities.

“If I had my way, I wanted to provide this particularly for the Reserve components, so that you can do it from your home,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff. “So when Mrs. Chiarelli thought Mr. Chiarelli was having a rough time, and she couldn’t get him to go in, she could get him to do a session like this from his own home. What a stigma beater that is.”
read more here
Video shrinks distance to mental health care