Leading Military Charity Partners with Brooke Army Medical Center to Provide Wounded Veterans Entertainment and Occupational Therapy through Video Games

Military charity Operation Supply Drop (OSD) – the world’s most generationally relevant support organization for veterans and active duty military – is proud to announce that on November 18, 2015, it delivered its most impactful video game care package (“Supply Drop”) to date, benefiting the approximately 800 patients treated annually by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) Burn Center, located at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, TX, the United State’s largest and busiest military hospital.

In partnership with USAISR Burn Center and through generous support from video game developers, publishers, hardware manufacturers, and both private and institutional donors, OSD was able to offer stress-reducing entertainment and support occupational therapy efforts for patients at BAMC. The military hospital provides care for more than 4,000 patients each day and comprises five separate clinics: Fort Sam Houston Primary Care Clinic, McWethy Troop Medical Clinic, Taylor Burk Clinic, the Schertz Medical Home, and the Corpus Christi Occupational Health Clinic. In addition to being the nation’s largest military hospital, BAMC is a Level-I military trauma center and provides industry-leading burn injury treatment to military and civilians.

“There’s no limit to the potential use of games as a therapeutic tool,” said Major Erik Johnson, Chief of Occupational Therapy for the Burn Center at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. “You can use the current generation of video game consoles, such as the XBox with Kinect motion sensor, for a wide range of supplemental treatments. These include improving range of motion in the upper extremities and balance enhancement activities, even with patients who have suffered a brain injury. Perhaps the biggest benefit I’ve observed, however, is that when we engage patients in this type of therapy it significantly boosts their emotional state. And anything we can do to provide them positive emotional feedback is a huge deal for us.”

For more information about this great charity, please visit www.operationsupplydrop.org.