rehabilitation
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China bans corporal punishment in internet rehab, UK and USA open up their own clinics
China's, how to say this, unorthodox rehabilitation methods, which involve "beating and confinement" of internet addicts, have finally been fully outlawed. Following the death of one teenager due to the treatment he received at an addiction camp, the Chinese Health Ministry has come out with a statement to say corporal punishment and methods restricting personal freedom "are strictly forbidden." In the meantime, the UK and USA are playing catch-up by opening up their own computer addiction camps, which have been described as residential internet detox clinics. Their genius ploy to get you off the web juice has been to go cold turkey and teach people to do chores as a distraction (really, chores and boredom are the cure and not the disease?). The British version even has a 12-step program, but we advise doing what we all did -- if you find yourself spending most of your time on the internet, just become a full-time blogger. Read - China bans tough treatment of young Web addicts Read - Britain's first computer rehab clinic opens Read - Clinic for internet addicts opens in US
Wii Fit helps improve balance in seniors
As though demand for the Wii and Wii Fit wasn't going to be high enough during this year's holiday, another practical use for Nintendo's console has been discovered: helping to rehabilitate people, particularly seniors, after falls, and helping to improve balance in order to avoid falls. Brett Sears, a physical therapist with Capital Region Physical Therapy in New York, has been using Wii Fit in this way over the past four months, and his patients seem to enjoy the new method of training.It's not the first time we've seen the Wii used in this way, nor the first time we've heard about using Wii Fit for rehabilitation, and we're going to guess it's not going to be the last, either.[Via GoNintendo]
Wii Fit the new go-to for rehab clinics?
Where in the past Wii Sports has been the ideal Wii-based solution for rehabilitation patients, Nintendo's newest craze, Wii Fit, is now stepping up to show everyone that it has something to offer outside of a really fun hula hoop mini-game. Now, sports trainers are looking to Wii Fit to help rehabilitate injured athletes. "We are looking to incorporate Wii Fit into the athletic training room as far as rehabilitation, for example, on post-operative knees and ankles," said Sue Stanley-Green, professor of athletic training at Florida Southern College. She noted that the success of the console in other rehab scenarios fueled their interest in Wii Fit, stating that "Fitness-oriented video games are also being used more and more in nursing homes for rehabilitation," also adding "Fitness video games have some really good potential to improve fitness in everyone."%Gallery-24459%[Via Engadget]
Wii Fit already carving up bods, finding use in rehabilitation
From the get-go, Nintendo's latest console was seen as a dream come true for folks who'd love to lose a few pounds, yet would rather log a few hours on the couch rather than the track. Shortly after the Wii Fit's launch, we're already seeing another wave of dedicated users reporting weight loss, and the trend is even bleeding into the medical field. According to Sue Stanley-Green, a professor of athletic training at Florida Southern College, the Wii Fit and other fitness-related games have "great potential for core strengthening and rehabilitation and may boost compliance with rehabilitation exercises." She also noted that these games were "being used more and more in nursing homes," and particularly with youngsters, titles such as Wii Fit are the only ones that stand a chance at getting them active. We can't decide if that's a positive thing or just downright depressing.[Thanks, Juergen]Read - Wii Fit in rehabRead - Wii Fit weight loss
Video games treat chronic pain better than drugs
The last thing Merck or Pfizer want to hear is that their drugs aren't needed anymore. According to Diane Gromala, a Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) professor, that may just be the case. She bases her belief on the many experiments that consistently show people who suffer serious, chronic pain (which Gromala suffers from herself) often find more relief in virtual reality environments than drug-based treatments.According to a CanWest News Service article, Gromala is currently working with doctors to learn why subjects who are distracted in virtual reality worlds report less pain than those using drug-based pain therapy. She believes that controlling pain through computerized VR and biofeedback mediation gives people ways to express, control, and keep track of their pain that pills can't. Video games have been shown to help patients in drug addiction therapy, why not pain management as well?If her studies pan out to be true (we first learned about this story from the folks at FileFront) , it will most certainly help vidicate an industry that has otherwise been villified for everything from mass school shootings to creating a generation of slackers. A little bit of good PR for video games would be a nice change of pace.
Using games for rehabilitation
One of the few things I recall from my Psych 101 class back in college was the tale of Pavlov and his dogs. As it turns out you can teach yourself to associate sounds with actions. A new virtual reality therapy is doing just that, helping those with addictions connect things they hear in game with the will to resist temptation.The game, created at Duke University by Professor Zach Rosenthal, works with rehabilitation patients to try to control their cravings when they are not in therapy. Because the patient is immersed in an environment similar to that they would find in the outside world, the temptations are fairly convincing. Rosenthal explains that cravings are a learned mental behavior, and if you can associate something, say a particular tone (like Pavlov's bell) with resisting that craving, you create a new learned behavior, this time a positive one. I love it when I see positive uses for video games. It proves that we as a society can learn so much from the games we play.
Therapy Tiles: like Twister, but for rehabilitation
Although we assumed that spending time with a Wii was easily the best way to rehabilitate, Entertainment Robotics' Therapy Tiles are looking like a close second. Designed to help patients get motivated, moving about and regaining their strength / motor skills, this game consists of an electronic, interactive surface along with "control programs for the specific therapeutic treatment." Currently, the tiles are being used at the Sygehus Fyn Svendborg hospital in Denmark for rehabilitation of cardiac patients, but it sounds as if anyone interested can phone up the sales team for a quote of their own. Check out the read link for a plethora of photos along with a video demonstration.[Via Wired]
Therapists, Army using Wii to rehabilitate patients
We've seen a variety of methods used to help stroke patients regain motion and motor functions, but we can't think of anything more exciting than playing video games as a critical part of your rehabilitation. Turns out, a number of physical therapists around the country are actually allowing patients to relearn balance and movement skills by playing the Wii, which as you know, it already quite the hit with the geriatric set. Furthermore, injured soldiers in Landstuhl, Germany are also "regaining their strength by playing virtual games on the Wii," and there's even suggestions out to conduct a research study that looks at the effectiveness of using Nintendo's latest console as a rehab tool. Hit the read link for the video report.[Thanks, Pat D.]
Mind controlled motorized wheelchair demonstrated
You know that the future's here when technology arrives that allows vehicles to be controlled with nothing but a thought. Ambient, in partnership with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, has developed a wheelchair that can be instructed to move when the driver thinks about certain words. The key component is a larynx control system called the Audeo, developed by the founders of Ambient, Michael Callahan and Thomas Coleman. The New Scientist has a video demonstration of the unit, which is surprisingly eerie without the usual subtle twitch of a hand that accompanies regular motorized wheelchairs. The next stage in the project -- externally recognizing individual words imagined in the brain -- is apparently a while off: still, we think a thought controlled anything at this stage in the game is a major feat.
Bionic limbs enable legless man to walk again
If you ever question whether or not technology is enriching our lives or contributing to the greater good, you need only glance in the direction of modern medicine to get your answer. Take Peng Shulin, a man from China who had the lower half of his body severed in a tragic accident -- for years he has been bedridden, but recently doctors have engineered an ingenious device that is allowing him to walk again. While there isn't a lot of information about the technology, it appears that Mr. Shulin's body is placed into an egg cup-like casing which is connected to two "bionic legs", and through the use of a downsized walking frame he is able to gain locomotion and move freely. Doctors report that Peng is -- unsurprisingly -- "delighted" with the device.[Via Medgadget]
HOWARD device helps stroke victims grasp again
While we've got robotic assistants that give aid to our ankles, arms, upper bodies, muscles, and legs (just to name a few), researchers at the University of California, Irvine are offering up yet another solution to assist stroke victims regain functionality in their hands. Sure, the Cyberhand and modified P5 glove have already been down this road before, but UCI's Hand-Wrist Assisting Robotic Device (cleverly-dubbed HOWARD) is a purely medical device that was constructed to "help people regain strength and normal use of affected hands long after a stroke." Considering that the first three months after a stroke are when the most "spontaneous improvement" occurs, the device is set into a lineup of scheduled therapy sessions which help victims regain motion, feeling, and grasping abilities of their hands. Additionally, HOWARD requires patients to move at least one-tenth of an inch before the assisting kicks in, which purportedly helps them "remember the feeling" of making motions on their own. Currently, 13 participants have been through HOWARD therapy, and all of them saw 10 to 20-percent improvements in various grasping tests, and while we've no idea when these contraptions will sneak into hospital wards, the team is already hard at work developing a smaller sibling with a bit more software options than the existing rendition.[Via Slashdot]
Xbox 360 used as rehab device for Marine
After being on the receiving end of a "head shot" in Iraq, Lance Cpl. John McClellan uses his Xbox 360 as a rehabilitation device to regain movement in his left hand. The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the 20-year-old Marine originally was playing Cabela's African Safari because Gears of War was "moving too fast," but now he's coordinated enough to try games that push him.McClellan suffered damage to the part of the brain that controls movement in his left hand and leg. It looks like he's getting the hand part down. May we recommend some Dance Dance Revolution for the legs? It keeps you fit and trains coordination in the legs. For four hours a day M-F he does "standard" rehab at a hospital and comes home to do another four hours of non-traditional gaming rehab. The hospital originally gave him a squeeze ball for his home time. Although the Xbox 360 was used in this circumstance, obviously other systems would be just, if not more, effective. Rehab + fun = Not thinking you're doing rehab.
Video games are a part of prisoner rehabilitation
The issue of video games in prisons has resurfaced; this time the publicity surrounds a private prison in Florida purchasing two PlayStation 2 systems (with inmate commissary, not with tax dollars) as part of an attempt to relax prisoners. This comes after recent debates over the right of prisoners to play video games, with Missouri first removing violent games after a blunder that resulted in prisoners shooting virtual cops in GTA, and then banning the use of games outright after a new Governor took office. Currently the overwhelming majority of prisons in the U.S.A. do not allow prisoners access to games.Hernando County Jail Assistant Warden Russell Washburn told the St. Petersburg Times: "I'd rather them be thinking about race cars than how I'm mad at someone... I don't want it portrayed that all they do is sit around and play PlayStation. I would agree that's not right if that's all you do. But this is just part of the rehabilitation. You can't throw them into a place and not give them anything to do and expect no problems. ... This is not a warehouse."We've previously reported on the positive aspects of allowing prisoners to play video games as part of the rehabilitation process: Oregon's game-friendly jails (1, 2) show how video games can help calm prisoners and reduce violent behavior inside prisons. Shouldn't that be all we need to know? If video games make the jobs of prison staff easier and potentially reduces the rate of prison suicides, then arguments of principle like Maj. Robert Lucas', an administrator with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, statement that jail is "not fun and games" should be irrelevant.I have an inkling that the real reason the "video games in prison" issue has been susceptible to such unwarranted attention (and sensational reporting) is due to inherent controversies with video games themselves. Why is the overall topic of entertainment in prisons being ignored? No one seems to have a problem with prisoners watching TV or DVDs, so it's reasonable to suggest that this particular problem has nothing to do with prisoner rehabilitation. Instead, this entire "controversy" shows all the hallmarks of being a thinly veiled extension of the ongoing resistance to video game media by out of touch (and/or vote grabbing) political figures.[Thanks, Babylonian]
