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Improving Access to High-Quality Mental Health Care for Veterans

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Health Care Services; Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders ; Editors: Megan Snair , Rapporteur, Adrienne Formentos , Rapporteur, and Marc Meisnere , Rapporteur.

The mental and behavioral health care needs of Americans, including veterans, have substantially grown over the past few decades. As the nations largest provider of mental health care, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces some of the greatest challenges in meeting the mental health care needs of its population. These challenges are exacerbated by a shrinking mental health care workforce and provider shortages in low-income and rural communities. To address these challenges, and at the request of VA, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders held a public workshop on Improving Access to High-Quality Mental Health Care for Veterans to explore the U.S. landscape for mental health care services, including telehealth services. The workshop considered ways to improve veterans timely access to high-quality care for mental health conditions. In particular, it explored internal and external best practices for three critical needs for mental health access (known as tripartite access in VA): urgent/crisis, engagement, and sustained access. This proceedings document summarizes discussions at the workshop.

Contents

• The National Academies of SCIENCES • ENGINEERING • MEDICINE
• PLANNING COMMITTEE ON IMPROVING ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR VETERANS
• FORUM ON MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS
• Reviewers
• Acknowledgments
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS
  • OVERVIEW OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN THE VETERANS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
  • IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA (IAVA)
  • COHEN VETERANS NETWORK
  • DOVETAIL LANDING
  • DISCUSSION
  • INTERNATIONAL EXEMPLARS
  • IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH CARE QUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES: INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH CARE
  • DISCUSSION
  • INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE AND SUSTAIN ACCESS
  • DISCUSSION
  • THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY
  • POPULATION HEALTH APPROACHES
  • LEVERAGING INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS
  • DISCUSSION
  • IMPROVING ACCESS WITH COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS
  • USING PHARMACISTS AS ENTRY POINTS
  • DIGITAL HEALTH INNOVATIONS
  • DISCUSSION
  • PLANNING COMMITTEE REMARKS
  • FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS FOR VA

  This activity was supported by contract no. 36C10X22C0062 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

  Suggested citation:

  National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Improving access to high-quality mental health care for veterans: Proceedings of a workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27206.

  This publication is available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

  Printed in the United States of America.