THE WARRIOR'S JOURNEY PROJECT: AN ON-LINE COURSE TO FACILITATE REINTEGRATION OF MILITARY COMBAT VETERANS

The presentation in this poster describes The Warrior's Journey Project, an online college-level course developed as a part of the telemedicine project through the Young Adult and Family Center at UCSF. This course is the first in a series of courses developed for the YAFC's telemedicine project under umbrella of AAR (Armed services Academic Resources) program which is designed to help service members as they address issues of deployment and combat experience. A web-based intervention designed to assist military service members returning from combat to successfully reintegrate into civilian society, the Warrior's Journey Project seeks to overcome historical barriers to care by providing a University of California accredited course that is culturally relevant to the unique values of the military. This online class not only supports academic goals of veterans, but enables them to appreciate both positive outcomes as well as challenges resulting from military service by helping to normalize the experience of returning to civilian life from combat. In this class, military combat veterans are able to address questions and concerns that they may have about stress responses and learn strategies to alter reactions to non-combat situations. The intervention is designed as a 21-hour, 7 week online college course, thereby avoiding the stigma of mental health services and appealing to the training-oriented culture of the military. The content of the course draws on the metaphor of the hero's journey and includes material from physiological and psychological research on stress responses, including post-traumatic growth. The presenter will discuss the process by which the pilot phase of the project has been developed and implemented, including delivering and evaluating the course itself (implemented in January- February 2011), and obtaining preliminary data on the effects of the course. The effects of the course will be assessed through changes in overall knowledge, symptoms, self-efficacy, and positive growth. In the effort to extend clinical services into veteran communities where resources are limited or not easily accessible, computer-based psychiatric outreach is a feasible alternative to brick-and-mortar clinics. It is also expected that technologically savvy veterans are more likely to access services on-line, if these services are perceived to be more accessible, adapted to meet specific needs, are confidential and provided in a manner that is potentially less stigmatizing than consulting mental health providers.