“Second Life is the perfect place for amputees to overcome emotional trauma by sharing stories and realizing they are not alone!” says Sandra L. Winkler, assistant professor at NOVA University in Florida, teaching occupational therapy.
Her Virtual Health Adventures project is using Second Life to find out if virtual reality can offer a better learning environment for amputees than a traditional website.
Dr. Winkler’s 3-year study is funded by the United States for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and is currently mid-way through the 3-year study period.
She adds that while it would be too early to state conclusions on the project, preliminary results clearly show that virtual worlds with their unique ability to create a sense of "being-there", are a powerful tool to facilitate a peer-network: a place where amputees from all over the world help others [veterans of wars and non-military amputees alike] and offer emotional peer support to families.
"Second Life offers a space where clinicians can learn from patients what they might not be able to glean from textbooks", Sandra Winkler says: a space where amputees can share insight into their lives so that able-bodied students or any other interested party can experience what it feels like to lose a limb.
More information at http://www.virtualhealthadventures.org/ [this video will also be presented in modified form athttp://www.icdvrat.reading.ac.uk/2014... ]
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