Tech Helps Soldiers Cope With Invisible Wounds of War

But finally, even the military is beginning to acknowledge the importance of sexuality as a crucial component of overall health. And as mental health professionals and policymakers gathered in Washington, D.C., last month for the Wounded Troops and Partners: Supporting Intimate Relationships conference, it became clear that technology is the key.

"Technology is allowing us to provide more services and to make services available to more people," says psychologist Barbara V. Romberg, Ph.D., founder of Give an Hour, which matches soldiers and their partners with volunteer mental health professionals. "We can do so many wonderful things we couldn't have done a decade ago. Think of the veterans who came back from Vietnam; they were isolated and alone. Maybe they were lucky to find someone who could help them, but it was so much harder."

One application in the works is eHART, an extensive online assessment tool developed by Sexual Health Network founder Dr. Mitchell Tepper and Chief Operations Officer Kelly J. Ace, Ph.D., J.D. The tool asks extensive and detailed questions about sexual functions, romantic relationships and general health history, then returns information tailored to you and a summary you can take to a health care provider -- if you want. None of the information is shared with anyone else unless you want to share it.

"People are more comfortable revealing sensitive information about sexuality to a computer than to a person," Tepper says. Especially when military approaches to sexual health are often delivered by people without any training in addressing sexual issues.

Many service members worry that admitting to mental or sexual health issues will negatively affect their military careers. It's especially difficult for young people to publicly address sex, as you don't have a lot of practice in your early 20s talking about relationship and sexual issues with partners, much less with doctors.