SimCoach Evaluation: A Virtual Human Intervention to Encourage Service-Member Help-Seeking for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression

This article describes RAND Corporation researchers' assessment of SimCoach, a computer program featuring a virtual human that speaks and gestures in a video game-like interface, designed to encourage service members, especially those with signs or symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, to seek help to improve their psychological health. The assessment included a formative component assessing SimCoach's design, development, and implementation approaches and a summative component assessing outcomes among participants in a user experience survey and a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Results of the formative evaluation identified both strengths and opportunities for improvement. For example, although SimCoach development processes were well-aligned with best practices for software engineering, SimCoach content development and evaluation processes could have been more tightly coupled to best practices in psychological health. The summative evaluation RCT did not show any SimCoach-related benefit in intent to seek help compared with that of control users not exposed to any intervention. However, secondary outcomes indicated that SimCoach users had satisfying experiences without distress. If SimCoach development is continued, greater attention to clinical processes and outcomes is needed so that the program can have its intended impact on help-seeking for PTSD and depression.