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Tag: veterans
11/15/2023

‘Getting Heads in Headsets’: Exploring Virtual Reality Use in the VA

Article Excerpt: Virtual reality (VR), though initially relegated to the world of gaming, is increasingly being applied in healthcare. Healthcare research and provider organizations nationwide are actively exploring the use of VR technologies in various aspects of care delivery — and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is one such organization.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/29c554fh

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
06/27/2023

Training Staff Across the Veterans Affairs Health Care System to Use Mobile Mental Health Apps: A National Quality Improvement Project

McGee-Vincent P, Mackintosh M, Jamison A, Juhasz K, Becket-Davenport C, Bosch J, Avery T, Glamb L, Hampole S. Training Staff Across the Veterans Affairs Health Care System to Use Mobile Mental Health Apps: A National Quality Improvement Project. JMIR Ment Health 2023;10:e41773 DOI: 10.2196/41773

This paper described and evaluated a training program for staff in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system to increase the reach of mobile mental health apps for veterans. Sites from all VA’s geographic regions were enrolled in this study with at least 25 staff members with direct contact with veterans recruited to participate. A total of 1110 staff from 19 VA sites completed the training program. Sixty-seven percent of participants provided mental health care. Staff training was delivered via a live, web-based format and consisted of a 3-hour core module for all staff and 1-hour module designed specifically for mental health clinicians. Program reach, satisfaction, and effectiveness of the training were assessed pre- and post-training by staff self-reported surveys. Most participants (93.9%) were satisfied with the training and 92.4% would recommend it to other staff. Knowledge about mobile apps and confidence in ability to demonstrate to veterans how to install and use mental health apps significantly increased after training (p<.001). Participants also expressed motivation to refer veterans to apps and encourage other VA staff to share apps with veterans. Overall, this study exceeded their recruitment target, indicating a higher-than-anticipated interest among staff. Further, the training program was well received and effective in promoting awareness about and motivation to recommend mobile health apps. About a third of participants came from other settings besides mental health, which suggests the value of VA mental health apps across the healthcare system. Future work is needed to evaluate the extent to which providers follow up on recommending mobile health apps to patients and patients accessing the mobile health apps.

Posted in: Cutting Edge Literature // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ;
07/28/2022

Telehealth by Phone, Video Proves Lifeline for Veterans with Opioid Addiction

Article Excerpt: For people with opioid addiction, many hurdles stand in the way of getting effective treatment – and COVID-19 could have made it harder. But with widespread implementation of telehealth, a new study shows, more people are receiving treatment, even amid the pandemic. The national study looked at the care received by veterans who received buprenorphine to treat their opioid use disorder both before and after the pandemic shifted care to telehealth visits in early 2020. It shows that virtual visits with addiction care providers allowed many patients to stay on their medication to support their recovery throughout the first year of the pandemic.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/mestnh7z

Article Source: Michigan Medicine

Posted in: Emerging Technologies // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
05/09/2022

FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans with Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study

Buck B, Nguyen J, Porter S, Ben-Zeev D, Reger GM. FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study. JMIR Ment Health 2022;9(1):e26049. doi: 10.2196/26049

This study evaluates the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a mobile health intervention for veterans with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) in a VA outpatient care. Seventeen veterans with SMIs participated in a one-month pilot trial of FOCUS. FOCUS consists of a mobile app, a clinician dashboard, and a mHealth support specialist. The app provides brief self-management interventions based on the user’s responses to an ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Interventions include strategies to cope with auditory hallucinations, mood, sleep, social functioning, and medication use. A mHealth support specialist tracks and gives technical support for participants’ use of FOCUS. The specialist also gives weekly updates to the mental health treatment team on each veteran’s use of FOCUS and reported symptoms and functioning. Researchers collected data on mental health symptoms and functional recovery, as well as qualitative feedback on the acceptability of FOCUS. On average, participants completed 85 EMAs and used FOCUS on 19.29 out of 30 access days. Overall, participants reported the intervention as highly acceptable; 94% would recommend FOCUS to a friend, and 88% felt satisfied. Based on qualitative interviews, participants found FOCUS complements their VA services and suggested possible subgroups to target (i.e., combat veterans). During the pilot, participants reported statistically non-significant improvements in recovery, auditory hallucinations, and quality of life. The study administered surveys to clinicians who had patients participating in FOCUS to assess feasibility and acceptability. Based on this data, clinicians found the mHealth updates useful for informing their care. FOCUS appears to be feasible, acceptable, and useful for veterans with SMIs; future research could examine specific implementation strategies in the VA, as well as replicate the effectiveness of FOCUS with a larger sample.

Posted in: Cutting Edge Literature // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
10/12/2018

Veterans’ attitudes toward smartphone app use for mental health care: Qualitative study of rurality and age differences

Connolly SL, Miller CJ, Koenig CJ, et al. (2018). Veterans’ attitudes toward smartphone app use for mental health care: Qualitative study of rurality and age differences. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 6(8): e10748. doi: 10.2196/10748

Researchers interviewed 66 veterans from 9 Veterans’ Administration (VA) clinics in Maine, Arkansas, and California about perceptions of smartphones and mobile applications (apps) for mental health. Read More

Posted in: Cutting Edge Literature // Tagged: ; ; ; ; ; ;
11/20/2017

VR Brings Dramatic Change To Mental Health Care

Article Excerpt: Skip Rizzo, associate director for medical virtual reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, has been working with the U.S. Army on ways to use Virtual Reality (VR) to treat soldiers’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for over a decade.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y94ns8al

Article Source: The Huffington Post

Posted in: Behavioral Therapies, Emerging Technologies, News // Tagged: ; ; ;
09/01/2017

Prioritizing measures of digital patient engagement: A Delphi expert panel study.

Garvin LA, Simon SR. (2017). Prioritizing measures of digital patient engagement: A Delphi expert panel study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 19(5): e182. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4778

Researchers conducted a three-part study to develop assessment items for measuring patient engagement with the Veterans Affairs’ digital health portal (MyHealtheVet). Read More

Posted in: Cutting Edge Literature // Tagged: ; ; ; ;
06/09/2017

Strategies needed to reduce treatment dropout rate for veterans with PTSD and Substance Use Disorders

Article Excerpt: Although there are effective treatments for veterans with co-occurring Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Substance Use Disorders (SUD), many drop out of treatment.

Full Article: http://tinyurl.com/yd9rjokf

Article Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Posted in: Behavioral Therapies, Methodologies & Analytics, News // Tagged: ; ; ;