SoldierStrong uses ISU’s VR facility to combat PTSD

On an average day, 20 United States military veterans commit suicide.

“One a day is too many, but 20 is a big number. It’s unacceptable,” said Chris Meek, of Connecticut.

Meek, who is the co-founder of a non-profit called SoldierStrong, was in Ames on Thursday to meet with a group of experts to discuss how ISU’s Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) can help veterans deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Last month, SoldierStrong launched a new program called StrongMind, which immerses the user in a virtual reality setting similar to the one that caused their trauma.

“We are going to be funding and donating virtual reality software, hardware and clinical training to VA facilities across the country to help veterans with post-traumatic stress,” Meek said.

Thursday’s meeting at Iowa State University was a parallel track to that initiative. As SoldierStrong staff researched how they could get involved in the mental health arena and focus on technology— which has been the organization’s strength in recent years— they located a number of experts, several of whom gathered at ISU for the meeting along with representatives from Iowa State.

“We feel ISU has the best hardware for virtual reality given the cave that’s here at VRAC,” Meek said.

“We are also working with the VA’s Innovators Network, which is a group of forward-thinking people in the VA who are helping us deploy the hardware and the software at 10 facilities around the country.”

The program will contribute data to the Million Veterans Program, which is a collaboration between the Department of Energy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The program has the goal of collecting data on one million veterans.

“The DOE has five of the 10 world’s largest computers, and Iowa State University is the only university in the country that has a Department of Energy national lab here on campus,” Meek said. “The DOE collects all the data, and they give it to the VA to do various research projects.”

A big part of Thursday’s meeting involved the stakeholders deciding what data they would need, how they would use it and what they expected to achieve from it.

“My hope and goal is to come to some sort of a new solution of how to treat post-traumatic stress,” Meek said.

The stigma related to seeking help for PTSD remains one of the biggest obstacles for getting veterans to seek help. Meek is hopeful that offering therapy in a format that feels more like gaming that it does traditional counseling will encourage veterans to accept help — especially the current generation of veterans who grew up with video gaming systems.

“We’re hoping that the gaming feel to this program will reduce the stigma,” Meek said. “We’re hoping veterans will see it as a video game that helps you heal.”

But it’s not just recent veterans who deal with PTSD.

“We’ve lost more Vietnam-era veterans to suicide than whose names are on The Wall in Washington, D.C.,” Meek said. “And the post-9/11 generation is on that same path.”

The StrongMind program offers 14 different scenarios and each one can be tweaked a little bit to more closely resemble the scenario that is the trigger point for the individual veteran.

Being in a virtual environment resembling the traumatic experience creates an immersion therapy for the user.

Confronting the memory head-on, over and over again, reduces the brain’s response to it, so that ultimately, the veteran controls the memory and not the other way around.

“The whole goal is to reduce the trigger points that make you not want to talk about it or make you anxious or jumpy or scared,” Meek said.

As someone who worked three blocks from Ground Zero and was there on 9/11, Meek has first-hand knowledge of these trigger points.

The VR therapy is also being used in similar programs to help PTSD sufferers, such as emergency response workers and victims of military sexual assault.

“What we’re doing is focused on members of the military, but everything we’re doing is scalable for other people in the population,” he said.

Meek is a finance guy by profession, but he started his non-profit when he was asked for help. He’d been looking for a way to help after being near Ground Zero on 9/11.

“One of my most lasting memories of that day is the hundreds of first responders rushing into the Towers as thousands of us were going to the Brooklyn Bridge or the Upper East Side,” he said. “So I knew at some point I had to do something.”

Meek didn’t know then what it would be or when.

A few years after 9/11, Meek was approached by a buddy who was a Marine and knew a serviceman stationed in Afghanistan who was asking for tube socks and baby wipes — two essential items to U.S. service members serving in the Middle East.

“They hike all day, so they go through lots of socks then throw them out, and the baby wipes were how they took a shower,” Meek said.

Meek started sock drives, which quickly grew and were being held across the country, and he co-founded the non-profit SoldierStrong in 2009 to support that initiative.

As the number of deployed troops began to dwindle, Meek’s organization began to focus on scholarships for those who were returning.

That resulted in the creation of SoldierStrong’s mission: Helping service members take their next steps forward. With a history that started with tube socks, it was apropos.

“We started with steps on the battlefield and then moved to steps in job training and education,” Meek said.

The next evolutionary step for SoldierStrong was becoming involved with an exoskeleton device that enables a paralyzed person to stand and walk again.

“We’re doing the literal sense of our mission statement of helping service members take their literal next steps,” he said.

SoldierStrong now funds five different medical devices and is focused on finding revolutionary technology.

“We don’t just want to put a veteran in a better wheelchair. We want to help them walk again,” he said.

The exoskeleton allows the user to be at eye-level with the world again, which is also having an amazing result on the mental health of its users.

“So far the results of that are astounding,” Meek said. “One veteran we work with said, ‘I’m the tallest 5-foot-7 guy you’ll ever meet.’”

Results like that inspired Meek and those at SoldierStrong to wonder what else they could do to help with the mental health of veterans.

Meek was looking for revolutionary solutions and came across technology at the University of Southern California, which Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Ph.D., had been developing for the past few years. SoldierStrong staff thought the program was just what they were looking for and started the StrongMind initiative earlier this year.

“It’s our 10-year anniversary next month,” Meek said. “If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would go from packing socks in my driveway to coming to Iowa State to meet with the best minds in mental health, I would have asked what they were drinking.”

SoldierStrong, working with the VA Innovation Center, has identified major research-focused VA clinics at which to begin deploying the StrongMind VR PTSD protocol. As more resources become available and more clinical testing is completed, SoldierStrong will expand deployment of the protocol to VA centers around the country.

SoldierStrong Donates State-of-the-Art Exoskeleton to the Veterans Affairs Phoenix Health Care System

SoldierStrong donated an EksoGT Suit exoskeleton to the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System today.

“This is an incredible day for our veterans,” said Rima Nelson, director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System. “We’re beyond grateful for this generous donation that will make such a difference in the lives of our veterans as they continue their rehabilitation.”

U.S. Army Reserves veteran Dan Rose, who was paralyzed from the chest down when an 1,100-pound improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated near him while on patrol in Afghanistan in 2011, demonstrated the exoskeleton that will be used by patients at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center.

Noting the exoskeleton has provided significant physical and mental health benefits for him, Rose predicted others would experience similar results.

“I had given up on walking and thought of it as a pipe dream, so to be able to stand on my own two feet and walk across a room was a very emotional experience. The first time I stood up I realized I’d forgotten what it was like to be eye level with everyone. It was like standing on top of a mountain,” said Rose, who will throw out the first pitch at tonight’s Arizona Diamondbacks-New York Yankees game at Chase Field. “I guarantee that this donation will change lives because it will provide a spark of hope and rekindle enthusiasm for the future.”

Since the nonprofit’s inception following the tragic events of 9/11, SoldierStrong has donated more than $3 million of medical devices to help injured veterans. Today’s donation marks the organization’s 20th exoskeleton donation. It is the 16th exoskeleton donation to the VA system.

“Today’s contribution marks a significant milestone. It represents a doubling of our initial commitment to donate 10 such high-tech medical devices to benefit our country’s injured veterans,” said Chris Meek, SoldierStrong co-founder. “We’re extremely proud to help as many veterans as we can so that they will experience the physical and emotional benefits of standing and walking again.”

Nationwide, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been studying the impact that exoskeletons have in rehabilitation and on the physical well-being and mental health of paralyzed veterans. Of particular interest is whether the loss of bone density and muscle atrophy can be slowed or reversed as patients make regular use of the devices to move around.

Veteran With Spinal Injury Throws Out First Pitch at Diamondbacks Game Tuesday Thanks to SoldierStrong-Donated Exoskeleton

Dan Rose, a former U.S. Army sergeant paralyzed by a 1,100-pound bomb in Afghanistan in 2011, will throw out the first pitch at Tuesday’s Arizona Diamondbacks-New York Yankees game with the aid of an exoskeleton donated by SoldierStrong, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing advanced medical technologies to veterans.

“Being able to throw out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game is a thrill of a lifetime,” said Rose, who demonstrated the EksoGT Suit exoskeleton earlier in the day when SoldierStrong donated one to the Phoenix VA Health Care System.

A member of the Army Reserves for a decade, Rose was severely injured when an improvised explosive device was detonated near him. The explosion left him paralyzed from the chest down, but he refused to allow the injuries of his life-changing sacrifice to define the rest of his life. After receiving access to advanced medical technology, Rose has become involved in many adaptive sports competitions and winning gold medals along the way.

Derrick Hall, the club’s president and chief executive officer, said the entire organization was eager to see Rose on the field.

“We salute Sergeant Rose for his service and sacrifice and we cannot wait to see him throw out this first pitch using the exoskeleton from SoldierStrong,” Hall said. “The Arizona Diamondbacks are very proud to support so many local and national charities that benefit our military with funds raised at our annual Veteran’s Day golf tournament. We owe our servicemen and women a huge debt of gratitude and this is just one small way to give back to someone who has given so much.”

Since SoldierStrong’s inception following the tragic events of 9/11, the Stamford, Conn.-based organization has donated more than $3 million of medical devices to help injured veterans.

“Today’s contribution marks a significant milestone. It is our 20th exoskeleton donation and represents a doubling of our initial commitment to donate 10 such high-tech medical devices to benefit our country’s injured veterans,” said Chris Meek, SoldierStrong co-founder. “We’re extremely proud to help as many veterans as we can so that they will experience the physical and emotional benefits of standing and walking again.”

The donation to the Phoenix VA Health Care System was also the 16th exoskeleton donation to the VA systems across the nation.

NFL Hall of Famer, Businessman Roger Staubach to Headline SoldierStrong Fundraiser in Dallas on Thursday

Roger Staubach, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Dallas Cowboys to two Super Bowl victories before building a commercial real estate firm with more than 1,000 employees, will be the guest speaker at a Thursday event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center for SoldierStrong, a national nonprofit organization that provides state-of-the-art medical devices to aid in rehabilitating mobility to returning veterans who have experienced spinal injuries.

Since the nonprofit’s inception following the tragic events of 9/11, SoldierStrong has donated more than $3 million of medical devices to help injured veterans. On Jan. 29, the Stamford, Conn.-based organization donated an exoskeleton to the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System. It was SoldierStrong’s 19th exoskeleton donation and its 15th to the VA system.

“Roger Staubach is an inspiration to millions of people. Upon his graduation from the Naval Academy in 1965, he could have opted for an assignment in the United States, but volunteered to serve a tour of duty in Vietnam,” said Chris Meek, SoldierStrong chairman and co-founder. “His commitment to our country and America’s military veterans is second to none. SoldierStrong is honored that he is lending his voice and passion to our mission.”

The fundraising reception, which will include an exoskeleton demonstration by a combat-injured veteran, will be in Café 43 of the presidential center, 2943 SMU Boulevard, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. People interested in attending the event can RSVP at events@soldierstrong.org.

Staubach won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Memorial Trophy as a junior at the U.S. Naval Academy. A six-time Pro Bowl selection, he led the Cowboys to five Super Bowls in all and was the Super Bowl MVP in 1972. He was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1985. Even before he retired from the NFL, Staubach founded The Staubach Company, which largely developed and managed commercial properties. He sold the firm in 2008 for a reported $613 million.

“I’ve always appreciated that people have cared about me and said, ‘I’m a big fan of yours,’ but it’s never quite the same as the feeling I’ve had as a military veteran when someone says, ‘We appreciate your dedication to our country,'” said Staubach, who was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2018. “We owe so much to the men and women who have been injured while defending our freedom and it’s an honor to help SoldierStrong, which is doing so much to help America’s veterans. I appreciate the opportunity to show them that we care for and are committed to them.”

Dan Boren, Former Oklahoma Member of Congress, Joins SoldierStrong Advisory Board

STAMFORD, Conn., Feb. 06, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Former Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren has joined the advisory board of SoldierStrong, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the nation’s military veterans by providing them with the resources they need to overcome obstacles to leading to fuller lives.

“Dan Boren is a recognized leader in the fields of technology and health, which is the intersection where SoldierStrong’s commitment to our veterans meets,” said Chris Meek, the organization’s co-founder. “His former service on the House Armed Services Committee and House Select Committee on Intelligence are testaments to his commitment to the well-being of America’s active duty military personnel and veterans. I join our entire board of directors in welcoming Dan because his exceptional leadership, can-do spirit and record of results prove he’s a real difference maker on issues that matter to SoldierStrong and the men and women we serve.”

Boren is the president of corporate development for the Chickasaw Nation, a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. In that role, he helps to drive the nation’s business diversification strategy.

Before joining the Nation, Boren represented Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District for four terms before retiring in 2013. While in Congress, he also played a leadership role on Native American issues, serving as the Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Indian Affairs. Before election to Congress in 2004, Boren served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was the first freshman ever to be elected as caucus chairman.

Boren also serves on various boards of directors including the National Rifle Association, Seminole State College Educational Foundation, the University of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital Foundation and Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in economics at Texas Christian University and master’s degree in international business from the University of Oklahoma. He resides in Edmond, Okla., with his wife, Andrea, and their two children, Janna and Hunter.

“When I see everything that the people of SoldierStrong have accomplished on behalf of our nation’s greatest heroes such as donating 15 exoskeletons to the Veterans Affairs Health System and four such devices to other medical facilities, for instance – I know I want to help them do more,” Boren said. “It is an honor to join SoldierStrong’s advisory board and to share in the commitment to help military veterans who have given so much in defense of our freedom.”