Lynn Chwatsky has been overseeing the Sesame Workshop’s initiatives with military families since 2006.

When we think about the challenges of military life, we sometimes forget the transitions the youngest members of our military families go through. Our service members’ young children are faced with a number of uniquely difficult circumstances: repeated relocation, the deployment of a parent, homecomings, injuries, even the death of a parent – to name a few. For years, Sesame Workshop has been providing resources that help both military parents and their children stay resilient during those trying transitions. Now, those bilingual (English and Spanish) resources are available on our new, free military families mobile application.

	PE Coach mobile app

Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy is a treatment where patients approach trauma-related memories, feelings and situations to help emotionally process an intense or uncomfortable experience. It’s considered one of the most effective treatments for post-deployment psychological concerns. “PE Coach” is a new mobile application featuring a variety of tools to help users advance their prolonged exposure therapy. It was developed by National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), a Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury center, and the Department of Veteran Affairs National Center for PTSD.

“While prolonged exposure therapy is the gold standard for treating posttraumatic stress disorder, patient’s engagement in homework is important. This valuable between-session homework involves revisiting their memory and confronting uncomfortable situations, such as going to the mall for 45 minutes when one may typically avoid crowds,” said Dr. Greg Reger, T2 lead clinical psychologist. “The tools offered by the ‘PE Coach’ app help users stay proactive with their homework and track progress.”

	LifeArmor mobile app

Sure, a wrench and hammer are handy to keep around, but how about a “Gratitude Letter” or a “Perspective Change” tool? For those returning from deployment with common post-deployment issues, these interactive tools available on a new mobile application from National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), a Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury center, can be essential resources for coping and building resilience.

Modeled after afterdeployment.org and available on iPhone, iPad and Android systems, the app provides information on 17 different topics where post-deployment issues can impact. Each topic includes an assessment, information about concerns related to the topic, videos of those who coped with an issue, and tools to help cope with psychological concerns and traumatic brain injury.

“The app features many of the issues that are common to service members and military families, including tips for families and friendships, life stress and anxiety, mild traumatic brain injury, anger, substance abuse and military sexual trauma,” said Dr. Julie Kinn, T2 psychologist and mobile applications lead.

	Download the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Pocket Guide mobile app and then share your feedback with DCoE.

We want to hear from you! Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) encourages health care professionals to share their thoughts on the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Pocket Guide and corresponding mobile app. Your feedback will help us make improvements to the pocket guide and other traumatic brain injury-related products.

How often do you refer to the pocket guide? What aspect of it do you find most useful? Based on your experience with the pocket guide, tell us everything from advantages and disadvantages to recommendations and suggestions for future traumatic brain injury (TBI) clinical resources and tools.

The pocket guide, developed by DCoE, is an all-encompassing, quick reference clinical guidance tool to help primary care providers assess and treat service members and veterans who have sustained a concussion. It includes a summary of the clinical practice guidelines and recommendations from the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs on the management of mild TBI and provides information on treating common mild TBI symptoms; coding guidance; clinical recommendations for cognitive rehabilitation and driving following TBI; patient education materials; and additional clinical tools and resources related to TBI prevention and care.

	Positive Activity Jackpot mobile app

The newest mobile application from National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) encourages you to get moving.

Designed for those experiencing post-combat stress, “Positive Activity Jackpot,” available for Android systems, helps users creatively plan fun activities using “pleasant events scheduling,” a behavioral health therapy used to help regulate emotions and cope with stress.

“If you have enough positive events in your week, you’re just going to feel better,” said Dr. Amanda Edwards Stewart, T2 clinical psychologist. “With this therapy, we say ‘what can you do today to make yourself feel better?’ and go through a list [of activities]. The cool thing about a mobile app is that your phone has so much more functionality than sitting with a clinician.”

The app offers many ways to find activities in your community using the phone’s GPS navigation feature. Users can use a step-by-step search function to choose an activity based on its distance, cost or one that just suits their current mood. They can also search through the app’s “Jackpot!” game-like feature where users can pull a lever on a slot-machine screen to flip through a random list of local activities in their area found by the GPS.