Interactive Game-Based System for Psychological Health Education

When a service member returns from deployment, expectations on both sides run high for a joyous reunion. However, this transition to a peacetime environment can pose many challenges for the service member as well as his family and friends. Soar Technology, with our partners at USC''''''''s Institute for Creative Technology and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, propose to develop a game-based training environment that will assist the families of service members, and the service members themselves, in recognizing when a service member may need psychological help and encouraging that service member to seek out help. Our game-based training environment will focus on four areas; how to recognizing the signs that a service member may need help, what are the available psychological health options, how to suggest to the service member that they may need help, and how to ease the service member''''''''s concerns with entering into an unfamiliar situation. Our team''''''''s deep experience base in building game-based training tools for the military, using game environments as psychological therapy tools, and providing psychological health treatment specifically to the military community, makes us uniquely suited to develop this game-based training system for psychological health education.