LI veterans use virtual reality to fight PTSD | Latest Tech News
A Long Island veterans home is utilizing state-of-the-art virtual reality to help its residents fight PTSD with wonderful simulated tours of outer space, animal sanctuaries and the northern lights.
Residents at the Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University can have virtual experiences diving with sharks, catching butterflies, taking pictures archery arrows, racing NASCAR automobiles and watching Broadway exhibits or an Ole Miss school soccer sport, too.
The veterans also can touchingly even “return” to international locations where they fought, such as Vietnam, to see the land now.
Virtual Mynd Immersive CEO founder Chris Brickler serving to Vietnam War veterans Paul Walwanis (proper) and Chuck Kurtzke use virtual reality headsets at Long Island State Veterans home in East Setauket on Jan. 30, 2026. Elizabeth Sagarin for NY Post
“You feel like you’re right there,” 80-year-old Marine veteran Chuck Kurtzke marveled to The Post while exploring the Great Barrier Reef’s depths with one of the latest high-tech headsets.
The Suffolk County facility partnered with tech company Mynd Immersive to convey the groundbreaking visuals and audio headset-based program to its residents.
“We can take these experiences and put you in your happy place,” said the home’s deputy government director, Jonathan Spier.
Those veterans struggling from PTSD or a associated issue have used the headsets to enter calming environments such as watching the northern lights, he said.
“It helps eliminate a lot of pain,” Spier said of the project, which has been quickly bettering over the past few years as the technology only will get better.
The veterans are ready to use virtual reality to help fight PTSD and even keep energetic inside the nursing home. Elizabeth Sagarin for NY Post
Some more senior residents at the home are preserving cellular by utilizing the technology to expertise butterfly-catching in a scenic subject or taking pictures arrows at a goal by utilizing a handheld gadget.
“Range of motion in a nursing home is important. If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Spier said.
The software program, which pairs with Meta VR headsets, also takes members around the world with guides through cities and other occasions.
Spier said a resident who fought in Vietnam wished to see what that nation seems like now.
Joseph Marino, 84, said he’s curious about just about returning to Europe.
“I would like to go back to Luxembourg because I’ve been there before. It was nice,” Marino said.
Mynd also gives adventurous programming, such as skydiving, race-car driving, a tour of the International Space Station, horseback using, animal interactions and an intimate volcano sweep.
Such experiences are particularly fashionable among those who served in Vietnam, whereas the World War II crowd prefers milder scenes, according to Spier.
Kurtzke said his favourite place to be is on the buzzing flight deck of an plane service, which gladly takes him back to his 20 years of service.
Mynd CEO Chris Brickler told The Post he was motivated to create this system by his own grandfather who had dementia. Elizabeth Sagarin for NY Post
“I wasn’t allowed on the aircraft carrier deck, but I did everything else on the inside,” recalled the person who once told President Eisenhower that the Boston Red Sox would never win the World Series again.
“The headset really brought back memories,” he said.
Spier said the devices also pair with one another for guided tours among residents to promote “brain stimulation.”
“They did tours of Europe, walking tours of Washington, DC You can see different museums, Italy, and Paris … the sky is the limit,” he said.
Mynd’s CEO, Chris Brickler, designed this system, which he said was motivated by the condition of his grandfather, who had dementia. The CEO said he noticed breakthroughs with the devices in sufferers comparable to his granddad.
Brickler’s father, a Navy veteran, also endured PTSD.
Kurtzke makes use of the headset to explore the flight deck of an plane service — one thing he never bought to expertise during his service. Elizabeth Sagarin for NY Post
“We’ve never seen a technology that you can put this on and unlock memories to the extent that you can,” the CEO said.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, this is something so cool that could change a lot of lives for older veterans,’ especially for the Vietnam generation,” he said.
“There’s so many locked up emotions, there’s so many locked up feelings about that war.”
The Long Island facility veterans has demonstrated such strong proof of idea over the years that Mynd’s programming has been rolled out in 75 veterans’ properties and counting across the United States.
“Medications don’t always work,” Spier said.
The virtual program is “creating that better interplay and that expertise.
“It’s such a great tool for us.”
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