Dr Nada-Raja, who is a senior research fellow in the Otago department of preventive and social medicine, was commenting during a talk in Dunedin last week.
Having undertaken cutting-edge research involving internet-provided forms of mental health therapy, she gave a paper discussing such approaches and how they could improve the wellbeing of some veterans.
She was speaking at a two-day conference organised by an Otago University research grouping which focuses on the health of veterans, serving personnel and their families.
Dr Nada-Raja discussed a New Zealand-wide study she had undertaken with a group of about 700 people who showed indications of psychological distress and were not receiving mental health care.
Group members had responded positively, and nearly a quarter of them had sought support from a doctor after starting the study.
The internet approach was encouraging them to seek further help.
Many members of the group had been ''hard to reach'' and some were ''resistant'' to other forms of therapy because of a previous perceived ''negative interaction'' with mental health services.
An internet approach could prove ''quite suitable'' for some socially isolated Vietnam War veterans, given they were familiar with the technology and could appreciate the well-structured interaction with the computer program, and its ''non-judgemental'' responses, she said.
