Trauma and technology: New tools teach veterans, clinicians about PTSD

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are developing a host of tools online and on smartphones to help veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. I wrote in today’s Globe about some of the new technologies, including an online treatment program for people with PTSD symptoms and heavy alcohol use designed by Boston researchers.

While researchers look at how to use technology to put more information into the hands of veterans themselves, some are creating new ways of training physicians and other professionals working with veterans.

As many as one in five people who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan may have symptoms of PTSD or major depression, according to a 2008 RAND Corporation study. Only about half of the people with symptoms sought mental health care in the year before they were surveyed. Increasingly, veterans are getting care outside of the Veterans Affairs health care system, the report said.

The Home Base Program, a partnership of the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital, earlier this year launched a webcast training program for clinicians. Called From the War Zone to the Home Front , the program was created in collaboration with the VA’s National Center for PTSD. It included 14 weeks of live webcast training sessions which are now archived and can be viewed for free continuing medical education credits through Feb. 23.

The sessions cover identifying PTSD and associated issues, the effects on family members, sexual trauma in the military, approaches to treatment and more.

About 5,200 clinicians have registered to view the series, spokeswoman Lee Chelminiak said, including people who work in homeless outreach, community mental health settings, colleges, and pediatric offices. The Home Base Program also is launching an educational tool for military families at StayingStrong.org focused on how moving, a parent’s deployment, and other factors can affect a child’s emotional development.