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PLAYING GAMES IN PURSUIT OF RECOVERY -- "In occupational

therapy, games have historically been used. But a 27-year-old

does not want to play a game of checkers with you."

For more about veterans and Wii-hab, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=wii&op=and

Story here... http://www.projo.com/news/bobke
rr/kerr_column_13_04-13-08_D69O8K8_v20.34b63de.html

Story below:

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Playing games in pursuit of recovery

by Bob Kerr

Bob Carroll was a gunner on a Humvee when an improvised explosive device blew up close by. He suffered a concussion.

“I don’t remember much,” he says. “I could have been unconscious. I’m just not sure.”

That was in 2004, during his first tour in Iraq with the Army’s First Cavalry Division. Last year, during his second tour, he starting having problems with memory and his ability to connect things. He was a squad leader and those problems were dangerous.

“I knew my performance was going down,” he says.

He was evacuated to Germany, then back home.

He is 27. He lives in Fall River with his wife, Meaghan. He was a student and basketball player at Rhode Island College on Sept.11, 2001. He dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army. He is one of those people who remind us of the strong national resolve that existed following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

He is also one of those who remind us of the hard price paid and the hard road back. He suffered more than a concussion in that IED explosion. He suffered the signature injury of this war — traumatic brain injury. The world is a little mixed up.

So last December, he started playing video games. He had played them before for fun. Now, he plays them to help fill in some of the gaps created by the war.

In a basement room at the Providence VA Medical Center, Carroll picks up the controller of a Wii game system and deals with his war’s lasting impact.

“This generation, my generation, under 35, we grew up with video games,” says Erinn Raimondi, the occupational therapist who works with Carroll. “In occupational therapy, games have historically been used. But a 27-year-old does not want to play a game of checkers with you.”

She started pushing for a Wii system at the veterans hospital. It is not standard therapy equipment in civilian or military hospitals, but it is starting to be recognized as a natural fit for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who already know how to play the games on a screen. It is being used at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., and Raimondi has been in touch with therapists there. When hospital officials approved the system for Providence in December, she became one of a small group of therapists to put the games to work. She thinks it can help with all kinds of problems — socialization, range of motion, strength, endurance, dexterity, cognitive difficulties. She breaks the games down to their components to see which fit best with particular problems.

On some days, Carroll stands on a balance board while playing a game of baseball on the screen. He also has some balance problems.

And each time he comes in for his weekly session with Raimondi and Wii, he can look at what he’s done before and what he’s doing now. The numbers on the screen track his progress.

“That’s one of the best things — the instant feedback,” says Raimondi. “Especially with head injuries, you don’t always see improvement. Here, you see the scores. You know you’re doing better.”

Meaghan Carroll came to one of her husband’s sessions. She said she was happy he can now handle a grocery list.

“When I first got back, I had trouble with even recognizing numbers,” says Carroll. “I’d get lost when I drove. The VA got me a GPS system. Coming every week helped me with day-to-day things. My wife sees me doing better. When I first came back, she had to do more. Now, I take more and more responsibility.”

He is still officially on active duty. He likes the Army. He just doesn’t know if he’ll be able to be the soldier he was before.

“I couldn’t go back to Iraq until I feel safer taking out a squad again,” he says.

So he works at the tough business of getting better. It is tough because it is so hard to know how far he has come. It isn’t a matter of running 3 more miles or doing 20 more pushups. It is a matter of reclaiming small things once done easily and naturally. It is a matter of becoming undeniably normal. And that is not always easily measured.

So Carroll heads for that basement room and his video games. What has become for many in his generation a way of putting the world on hold has become for him a way of getting back to it.

“I play the games and figure out the steps I need to follow,” he says. “Right now, I’m just concentrating on my recovery. I’m just trying to get better.”

bkerr@projo.com

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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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