Can crowdsourcing produce innovative and practical ways to fill health care gaps? The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) hopes so.
Everyone—military, civilians, caregivers, and clinicians, people living with posttraumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury (TBI)—is eligible to share ideas. The site posts contributions, such as one from a woman whose husband could not attend open-casket funerals because he “could smell the dead body.” She suggests collecting anecdotal behaviors from spouses or caregivers and sharing the information to help people understand why veterans who have survived combat have different social cues. Another entry advocates for a mobile application to help people deal with ongoing fatigue. A third promotes emotional freedom techniques (“tapping” on acupressure points) for relieving symptoms of long-standing trauma.
Ideas can address prevention of TBI, a product or service that helps caregivers, or anything related to improving care. Winners will be announced at the DCoE Challenge Community website.