Can Technology Prevent Suicides in Veterans? I Say, ‘YES! It Can.’

Mental illnesses have unsparingly affected the U.S population from kids to army veterans. However, veterans’ mental illnesses are often overlooked or remain undiagnosed. And its consequences are really crippling, as a high number of veterans with mental illnesses commit suicide or indulge in self-harm.??

In the U.S Department of Veteran Affairs’ 2020 survey, the count was nearly 1.7 million cases alone. Suicides are often the end step, as it begins with initial signs of PTSD, TBI, MST and depression. While survivors of both war and mental illnesses work to spread awareness, there’s yet a major sign of improvement.??

With medically advanced resources, prevention and effective treatment are possible. However, it’s the right use of technology that can actually make a difference. From consistent monitoring to data-led treatment plans, effective tech tools can save the lives of veterans and help them overcome their traumas.??

The U.S Department of Veteran Affairs announced a $20M grand challenge to reduce veteran suicides. And here are the honorable Promise Award winners, whose amazing work on reducing veteran suicides is commendable.??

Promise Award Recipients and Their Contribution?

1. Arkansas Nurse-Led Academic Community Partnership Innovation?

ANACP was developed by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Centers on Aging, Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and College of Nursing. This program aims to implement technology and necessary resources for food security and suicide prevention for at-risk veterans.??

2. LexisNexis Risk Solutions /Public Consulting Group?

ReachFurther’s Reach Vet Program aims to provide social risk insights to ensure correct intervention for unserved individuals. These insights will integrate into predictive analytics and prevention interventions to provide real-world, real-time data sets to gain deep insights into veterans’ conditions.?

3. Crisis Text Line

Crisis Text Line and Dena Trujillo developed a 24*7 text-based mental health support and crisis intervention system for Spanish-speaking veterans.????

4. Oui Therapeutics

Seth Feuerstein’s Oui Therapeutics in collaboration with suicidologists and digital health developers developed CAPS+ with Peer Lead User Support to assess and plan for reducing suicide risks. This software will integrate with clinicians’ systems to help them to screen, assess and give effective intervention for veteran suicidal cases.??

5. OBT Development Group?

OBT’s ‘One Button Tracker’ is a simple, reliable and secured method of sharing personal experiences in detail. This precision psychotherapy created by veterans supports clinical treatment and ensures self-management of PTSD so that all symptoms are noted.??

6. Project Overwatch ?

Jamahl Labbe, PMP 's Project Overwatch program combines AI, ML and DL-based predictive models that monitor the veteran population. This solution assesses potential suicide risks by generating a tiered risk score, individual risks, and re-evaluation date-based risk tier to plan a personalized treatment.??

7. Voi Health

Voi Detect solution by Voi, Inc. is a validated suicide risk assessment that can identify high-risk suicide veterans ( within the next 72 hours). Under the expert Rick Johnson, it conducts SERAS and other psychiatric assessments to generate real-time risk scores, and monitors and tracks compliance and operational metrics.?You can read more about this here.?

8. RAS Innovation ?

RAS’s V-HOP ( Veteran Health Observation Platform) is a two-way 4k interactive holographic communication platform. It effectively connects VA healthcare providers to veterans to ensure their overall well-being.??

9. Sound Off ??

William Negley -led Sound Off’s mental health mobile app helps veterans seek help from licensed clinicians, a screened and trained Battle Buddy peer or X2.Ai’s clinically-validated chatbot Clara. It ensures that veterans can remain anonymous yet get effective treatment.

10. Wavy Warrior?

Using a medical device platform, Wavy Warriors ( Steve Thijssen ) connects everyday wearable devices and speakers. It offers real-time monitoring, stress interventions, and suicide prevention for vulnerable veterans.??

Healthcare Companies Contributing to Veteran Suicide Prevention??

Apart from these ten awardees, VA also acknowledged the work of nearly 30 finalists with the same vision. While all 30 finalists’ have shown a great demonstration of prevention efforts, some of them positively impacted the veterans’ mental illness treatment. Like BIOMOJO ’s integrated XR software that uses CBT along with interactive role-plays and immersive decompression XR-based scenarios to help veterans deployed at the prison.??

Another finalist company Cogitativo (David Buhler) designed an ML platform Vision that collects data points to produce digital biomarkers. These biomarkers help clinicians identify veterans at risk of suicide and enable them to start the primary intervention.??

Just like the previous two solutions, Early Alert ( Charles Young ) transforms suicide prevention through SMS communications, identifying veterans’ early signs and appropriate resources. Not just in preventing suicide but helping survivors is also crucial. And the Even Health company takes care of this. Its VR-based support group Cabana extends virtual support to veteran suicide survivors and prevents them to commit self-harm again.??

Conclusion??

Veterans are national heroes and their lives matter! Giving attention to their mental health and preventing them from self-harm/suicide is the need of the hour. At OSP, we also firmly believe that this mission of preventing veteran suicides requires effective planning and technological resources. Indeed, with the right technology, screening, monitoring and planning treatments become easier. OSP has worked on a myriad of mental health solutions including the prevention of veteran suicides. For veteran suicide prevention, OSP collaborated with Voi Health for the development of the Voi Detect solution. After all, at OSP, we understand that veterans serving across borders experience the worst that one can imagine. So, saving their lives is a must.??

Learn more about OSP and Voi Health’s Collab