Tag: Veterans Administration

What are the Correlates of Suicidal Ideation & Behaviours Among Former Military Personnel Not Enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration?

Published on by Andrew Marshall1 Comment

Research Paper Title

Correlates of Suicidal Ideation and Behaviours Among Former Military Personnel Not Enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background

The current study sought to explore suicidal concomitants, both demographic and psychological, among former military personal.

Methods

The sample included 645 veterans who are at increased risk for suicide but have not yet pursued Veterans Health Administration (VHA) services.

Results

Descriptive statistics revealed that these veterans are primarily young Caucasian males who served in the US Army.

In terms of psychological characteristics, the current sample reported clinically significant levels of depression, post-traumatic stress, and insomnia.

Furthermore, respondents acknowledged use of various substances and high levels of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness.

Conclusions

The demographic and psychological makeup of the researchers sample was somewhat similar to that of VHA-connected veterans except that their sample was slightly more educated and reported less physical pain.

Reference

Raines, A.M., Allan, N.P., Franklin, C.L., Huet, A. Constans, J.I. & Stecker, T. (2020) Correlates of Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors Among Former Military Personnel Not Enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration. Archives of Suicide Research. 24(4), pp.517-533. doi: 10.1080/13811118.2019.1660286. Epub 2019 Dec 2.

Can Internet-based Clinical Practice Guidelines aid in the Management of PTSD?

Published on by Andrew MarshallLeave a comment

Research Paper Title

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-Based Intervention to Disseminate Clinical Practice Guidelines for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The PTSD Clinicians Exchange.

Background

Delivery of best-practice care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a priority for clinicians working with active duty military personnel and veterans.

The PTSD Clinicians Exchange, an Internet-based intervention, was designed to assist in disseminating clinically relevant information and resources that support delivery of key practices endorsed in the Veterans Administration (VA)-Department of Defence (DoD) Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the Management of Posttraumatic Stress.

Methods

The researchers conducted a randomised controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of the Clinicians Exchange intervention in increasing familiarity and perceived benefits of 26 CPG-related and emerging practices.

The intervention consisted of ongoing access to an Internet resource featuring best-in-class resources for practices, self-management of burnout, and biweekly e-mail reminders highlighting selected practices.

Mental health clinicians (N = 605) were recruited from three service sectors (VA, DoD, community); 32.7% of participants assigned to the Internet intervention accessed the site to view resources.

Results

Individuals who were offered the intervention increased their practice familiarity ratings significantly more than those assigned to a newsletter-only control condition, d = 0.27, p = .005.

From baseline to 12-months, mean familiarity ratings of clinicians in the intervention group increased from 3.0 to 3.4 on scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely); mean ratings for the control group were 3.2 at both assessments.

Clinicians generally viewed the CPG practices favourably, rating them as likely to benefit their clients.

Conclusions

The results suggest that Internet-based resources may aid more comprehensive efforts to disseminate CPGs, but increasing clinician engagement will be important.

Reference

Ruzek, J.I., Wilk, J., Simon, E., Marceau, L., Trachtenberg, F.L., Magnavita, A.M., Coleman, J.L., Ortigo, K., Ambrosoli, J., Zincavage, R., Clarke-Walper, K., Penix, E. & Rosen, R.C. (2020) Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-Based Intervention to Disseminate Clinical Practice Guidelines for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The PTSD Clinicians Exchange. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 33(2), pp.190-196. doi: 10.1002/jts.22483. Epub 2020 Feb 26.