Communication
Conditions
Keywords
veterans, military, families
Brief summary
This project is a partnership between Soar Technology, the University of Southern California (USC) Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families (CIR) and the USC Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center (CM&BHC) to conduct a Safety and Effectiveness Study (SES) for an educational role-playing game developed by Soar Technology, Inc. The purpose of the intervention to be delivered by Soar Technology is to educate families and friends with the ultimate goal of empowering them to have a conversation with the veteran/service member about readjustment issues. The study will assess the safety and effectiveness of the provided game using personal interviews, play testing, and surveys. The game playing experience is hypothesized to be safe and effective with respect to having conversations with veterans/service members following deployment.
Detailed description
The intervention is a multi-scenario role playing simulation. Participants view the scenario and answer questions about what has been displayed as typical for post deployment service members. Participants receive immediate feedback with respect to expectations set by simulation developers.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALRole-playing game
Eligible participants will be invited to engage with a role-playing game for 30 minutes. The role play presents situations where a service member/veteran interacts with family or friends.
Sponsors
Soar Technology
Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center
USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families
University of Southern California
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 86 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* must be friend or family member to a military veteran or service member who experienced a deployment no earlier than 2007, or who are currently active and have recently returned from a deployment * be able to read English * be reachable via cell phone * age range 18-86 * daily access to the internet * have a personal email account for contact * experience with filling out online surveys, or online shopping, or social media, or playing digital games
Exclusion criteria
* no acute psychopathology based on PHQ-9 and VAS scores at baseline and VAS and PHQ-2 at pre-test * must not be active duty military personnel or a veteran at the time of the study * service member or self is not currently receiving treatment at VA or other mental health facility
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change from Baseline in mental health status at one week | One week | Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) Depression Scale |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change from intervention in task-based motivation at one week | Intervention, one week | Intrinsic Motivation Inventory |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| change from baseline to knowledge of best practices for post deployment conversations at one week | one week | A knowledge acquisition inventory of strategies for approaching service members with post deployment readjustment issues |
| Change in anxiety from immediately after the intervention to rating one week later | one week | visual analogue scale |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed