LI veterans use virtual reality to fight PTSD

LI veterans use virtual reality to fight PTSD

A Long Island veterans house is utilizing state-of-the-art virtual reality to assist its residents fight PTSD with superb simulated excursions of outer area, 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 reveals or an Ole Miss school soccer game, too.

The veterans also can touchingly even “return” to nations the place 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 house 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 considered one of the latest high-tech headsets.

The Suffolk County facility partnered with tech company Mynd Immersive to carry 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 house’s deputy government director, Jonathan Spier.

Those veterans affected by 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 assist fight PTSD and even keep lively inside the nursing house. Elizabeth Sagarin for NY Post

Some more senior residents at the house are maintaining cell by utilizing the technology to experience butterfly-catching in a scenic subject or taking pictures arrows at a goal by utilizing a handheld device.

“Range of motion in a nursing home is important. If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Spier said.

The software, which pairs with Meta VR headsets, also takes members round the world with guides by means of cities and other occasions.

Spier said a resident who fought in Vietnam needed to see what that nation seems to be 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 affords adventurous programming, such as skydiving, race-car driving, a tour of the International Space Station, horseback driving, animal interactions and an intimate volcano sweep.

Such experiences are particularly common 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 provider, which gladly takes him again to his 20 years of service.

Mynd CEO Chris Brickler told The Post he was motivated to create the program by his personal 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 man who as soon as 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 excursions 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 the program, 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 provider — one thing he never bought to experience 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 concept 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 experience.

“It’s such a great tool for us.”

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