RTI uses cookies to offer you the best experience online. By clicking “accept” on this website, you opt in and you agree to the use of cookies. If you would like to know more about how RTI uses cookies and how to manage them please view our Privacy Policy here. You can “opt out” or change your mind by visiting: http://optout.aboutads.info/. Click “accept” to agree.
Future directions of technological advances in prevention, assessment, and treatment for military deployment mental health
Spira, J., Johnston, S., McLay, R., Popovic, S., Russoniello, C., & Wood, D. (2010). Expert panel: Future directions of technological advances in prevention, assessment, and treatment for military deployment mental health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13(1), 109-117. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2009.0370
This panel seems to agree that technology can be useful throughout the deployment cycle. It can be used in prevention through stress inoculation training. It can be used during deployment to assess distress levels, reduce distress levels, and assess readiness to return to duty. And it can be used postdeployment for assessment (such as neuropsychological assessment or daily monitoring of symptoms) and for intervention to reduce PTSD symptoms and to connect veterans socially.
The panel also agrees that field-deployable technology must be simple and durable and should be able to be used in a variety of contexts.
Technology can help provide a realistic context for assessments (such as readiness to return to duty), for learning (such as stress inoculation training), and for treatment (such as boosting prolonged exposure treatment for combat-related PTSD).
Greater dispersement of the technology for maintaining mental health can occur as operator intelligence is built into the technology itself, reducing the need for specialists working one to one with a warfighter. However, widespread adaptation of this technology is unlikely to occur until research allows a better understanding of how performance on the technology corresponds to performance in the field.