Executive Briefing | by John Talbot, Ph.D. | October 20, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Continuation of care is key in successfully treating addictions, but it is something that is frequently easier said than done. Time and geography often are obstacles to providing optimal continuing care. Avatars, a computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games or a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities, are just one of the many available tech tools that creative provider organizations are deploying to meet that challenge.
One such creative provider organization is Preferred Family Healthcare, an addiction treatment provider organization with multiple locations in Missouri and Kansas. Preferred first started its development work by experimenting with the Second Life web application, where users can create avatars to socialize in a three-dimensional virtual world.
According to Dick Dillon, Preferred’s Senior Vice President of Planning and Development, their original goal was to use the technology as part of their marketing strategy – but that idea appears to be premature for now. However, Preferred’s leadership thought the avatar technology might be useful for continuing care for clients in rural areas, and that concept soon became a reality. Preferred now offers continuing care to adolescents via Second Life technology, with the ability for the teens to create avatars and attend individual and group therapy.
The results have been very impressive. The continuing care retention rates for their adolescents has gone from 40% using the traditional face-to-face model, to 90% with the avatars. Previously, adolescent involved in continuing care programming from residential care used about 6 hours of services over a six –month period; those involved in the virtual continuing care program used 6 hours of services per week. Some teens have even started their own AA group in the virtual world. Preferred Family Health has been awarded a three year grant from SAMHSA to develop a similar program for 19-25 year old young adults.
To meet Dick Dillon, and to learn more about Preferred Family Healthcare’s use of avatars in continuing care, be sure to catch his presentation, Mobile Technologies In Children’s Health and Human Service Systems, on November 11, 2010 at the Institute for Behavioral Health Informatics.
Sincerely,
John F. Talbot, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, OPEN MINDS
For more on the use of avatars in health and human services, check out: The Avatar Opportunity all members
This is free for the next sixty days to all registered OPEN MINDS Circle members.
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