Soldiers around the world who fight in war zones often face similar issues once they return home, including trying to get back to their normal routines. They may have problems readjusting and experience severe anxiety known as post-traumatic stress that can even lead to suicide. Psychological counseling may help, but so may interactive videos designed to help soldiers deal with combat stress. One video is helping some US soldiers who return from war.

Army veteran Robert Menendez knows this scenario all too well. This video simulation brings back memories of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I was always having dreams, you know, certain things that happened during deployments, especially my last one, that has to do with other people we may have lost,” he said.

Like the actor in the video, Menendez often felt anxious and angry. He became distant from family and friends.

“So I only told people that I felt comfortable with who had experienced it and may be going through it as well,” he said.

So, a military friend suggested he download this free, interactive video calledThe War Inside. It dramatizes different scenarios about the challenges of coming home after combat. Menendez identified with a soldier experiencing post-traumatic stress who is trying to understand and control his behavior.

“I think, once I acknowledged that I did have issues, it actually helped me cope with it,” said Menendez.

Read the full article and view the accompanying video here.

Big Idea: WILL Interactive develops Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS), which are interactive movies that force users to make serious decisions as a learning experience.

Why It’s Working: With more than 70 games on topics including the military, financial decision-making and youth education, WILL Interactive has developed a new form of educational and therapeutic media.

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Walk in the shoes of a soldier on the battlefield or learn how to avoid foreclosure in a precarious housing market — if you make a mistake, simply start the game over.

WILL Interactive has found a way to encourage game players to solve real-world problems using interactive role-playing games.

Read the full article here.

“Coming back incapacitated any sort of way wasn’t even on my spectrum to be honest,” Joe said.   “For a while there I say I refer to myself I was a ball of hate.”

Sharon Sloan knows Joe’s story.  She sees it play out every day. Her company, WILL Interactive, develops programs to help soldiers deal with depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Army reports suicides are up 80-percent from 2004 to 2008. There were 16 suicides in January of this year alone.

“There are so many veterans out there suffering from post traumatic stress, from combat trauma, from other issues that are potentially suicidal,” Sloan said.  “We can help those people.”

Dallas based Allies in Service secured a partnership with WILL Interactive to give soldiers and their families free access to a cutting edge tool to help them reintegrate into the civilian world.  The interactive movie helps soldiers fight this new war inside on the home front. They play out real world scenarios before they are forced to live them out and blow up.

See the video here.

The central message—that prevention of health-care associated infection is everyone’s responsibility—is consistently reinforced.The components of an effective programme (ie, constant awareness, an integrated and committed team, leadership, effective communication, accountability, and appropriate use of evidence) are presented in a compelling and accessible story.

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Overall, this video is a useful and entertaining introduction to the complexity of prevention of health- care-acquired infection and control, and could be especially helpful for individuals outside the practice of infection control.

You can read the full article (subscription required) here.

Are you a school administrator interested in teaching children about the hazards of cyber bullying? An airline employee looking to educate your passengers in terms of safer air travel? An Army colonel hoping to ease the re-integration process for soldiers returning from war? These are just a few of many possibilities Sharon Sloane, WILL Interactive’s President and CEO, envisions for this contest.

“We want to cast a really wide net and find out what the public or organizations that we haven’t worked with are thinking about with regard to ways that WILL’s simulations could improve society,” Sloane said.

Read the full story here.

Basically, they are asking for people to submit ideas for a full-blown educational simulation that, if deployed, would have a positive social impact. WILL will then pick one of the submissions and create and distribute it.

Frankly, if almost any other sim company offered this, I would be less excited.

Read the full post here.

The winner of the Challenge will have the unique opportunity to select the subject matter and help guide the creation of an interactive simulation. The finished program will be distributed nationally to address an issue of major societal importance in an effort to create real, sustainable change. The competition is open to applications from all organizations and individuals through April 20, 2012. Learn about the Challenge.

WILL’s business philosophy—”doing well by doing good”—motivates its desire to create positive social change through the use of its Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS®). The Challenge is an opportunity to engage the public in order to improve the world, while raising awareness of how impactful interactive simulations can be in positively influencing attitudes and behaviors/actions.

“Since 1998, we have been using VEILS® to help many organizations address issues that affect their operations and their people. Now we have the opportunity, for the first time, to throw open the doors and ask the general public to tell us what societal issue should be addressed,” said Sharon Sloane, President and CEO of WILL Interactive. “We are excited to make a difference in such a public manner, and to invite a new audience to understand the power of simulations that allow individuals to play out real-world scenarios before they live them out.”

VEILS® is an immersive technology that harnesses the engaging characteristics of game-based video simulations to capture the attention of individuals at a level that leads them to positive action. In VEILS®, users become the lead characters in an interactive movie simulation. They make decisions, see consequences of their choices, alter storylines and experience outcomes.

In use by millions of students, law enforcement personnel, soldiers, healthcare professionals and executives across thousands of schools, organizations, and all branches of the military, VEILS® have helped reduce instances of military suicide, educated youth about the dangers of drugs and the importance of responsible cell phone use, and assisted thousands of homeowners in avoiding foreclosure. Access demo versions of existing simulations.

HOW DOES THE CHALLENGE WORK?

To enter the Challenge, Entrants are required to submit by April 20, 2012 a proposal that contains contact information, a socially relevant learning objective, an explanation of the social issue and why the Entrant believes a serious game simulation will help address/combat the problem, a description of the target audience description, a brief marketing and distribution plan, and organizational/biographical information about the Entrant. Download the Official Rules.

Once the application process is closed, WILL’s team will select the five most qualified applications to be put forward for a public vote that will be hosted through WILL’s website and Facebook pages, and will be factored into the final decision.

The winner of this Challenge will have the social issue identified in their entry addressed through the development of a VEILS® game-based video simulation, and will receive, at no cost, the perpetual right to use the simulation. WILL Interactive will absorb all product development costs (approximate value = $500,000) to develop the VEILS® simulation, which will be distributed nationally through the joint efforts of the winner and WILL.

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High-resolution images from WILL’s existing simulations are available for download.

About WILL Interactive: Potomac, Md.-based WILL Interactive, the nation’s most experienced and most awarded developer of computer-based video training simulations, has produced 70 VEILS® and won numerous learning, media, and technology awards since its founding in 1994. WILL’s clients and partners are among the nation’s most respected organizations, including every branch of the U.S. military, the National Football League, Verizon, MedStar Health, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fannie Mae, McGraw-Hill, and thousands of schools and universities across the country.

“I’ve seen it in both the middle and high school,” Sturtevant said. “Pictures of students in compromising positions, or in clothes that are more revealing than they should be, where the student themselves sent it or someone else takes it and sends it.”

She said that in some cases, the emotional torture has caused real damage to students she has counseled.

But there is a growing arsenal of strategies, policies and now an online video game of sorts designed to show the consequences of bad decisions when it comes to texting, sexting, or sending explicit photos.

In the game titled It’s Your Call, a 14-year-old girl runs through several temptations with her cell phone ,including the pressure from a popular senior to text him an explicit photo of herself. The player is given three options. First, tell him no. Second, stall while you decide. Or third, send it because he’s worth it.

Read the full article here.

So far WILL has produced about 20 movies the Army focusing on safety, post-traumatic stress, combat operational stress, compassion fatigue, suicide prevention, and ethical decision-making.
During the experience the viewer has the opportunity to change a character’s fate by making simple choices along the way. Courtesy photoAt this year’s GI Film Festival, WILL Interactive premiered The War Inside, a film designed for Army-wide distribution as a cornerstone for their soldier behavioral health and post traumatic stress education program.
The War Inside sheds light on the psychological challenges of coming home with combat stress and the toll it takes on individuals, families, and society. The viewer plays as one of four different characters connected to a platoon that has just returned from combat. Each character explores the challenges of coming home.

You can read the full story here.