Development of a Perceived Access Inventory for Community Care Mental Healthcare Services for Veterans.

Access to high-quality healthcare, including mental healthcare, is a high priority for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Meaningful monitoring of progress will require patient-centered measures of access. To that end, we developed the Perceived Access Inventory focused on access to VA mental health services (PAI-VA). However, VA is purchasing increasing amounts of mental health services from community mental health providers. In this paper, we describe the development of a PAI for users of VA-funded community mental healthcare that incorporates access barriers unique to community care service use and compares the barriers most frequently reported by veterans using community mental health services to those most frequently reported by veterans using VA mental health services. We conducted mixed qualitative and quantitative interviews with 25 veterans who had experience using community mental health services through the Veterans Choice Program (VCP). We used opt-out invitation letters to recruit veterans from three geographic regions. Data were collected on sociodemographics, rurality, symptom severity, and service satisfaction. Participants also completed two measures of perceived barriers to mental healthcare: the PAI-VA adapted to focus on access to mental healthcare in the community and Hoge's 13-item measure. This study was reviewed and approved by the VA Central Institutional Review Board. Analysis of qualitative interview data identified four topics that were not addressed in the PAI-VA: veterans being billed directly by a VCP mental health provider, lack of care coordination and communication between VCP and VA mental health providers, veterans needing to travel to a VA facility to have VCP provider prescriptions filled, and delays in VCP re-authorization. To develop a PAI for community-care users, we created items corresponding to each of the four community-care-specific topics and added them to the 43-item PAI-VA. When we compared the 10 most frequently endorsed barriers to mental healthcare in this study sample to the ten most frequently endorsed by a separate sample of current VA mental healthcare users, six items were common to both groups. The four items unique to community-care were: long waits for the first mental health appointment, lack of awareness of available mental health services, short appointments, and providers' lack of knowledge of military culture. Four new barriers specific to veteran access to community mental healthcare were identified. These barriers, which were largely administrative rather than arising from the clinical encounter itself, were included in the PAI for community care. Study strengths include capturing access barriers from the veteran experience across three geographic regions. Weaknesses include the relatively small number of participants and data collection from an early stage of Veteran Choice Program implementation. As VA expands its coverage of community-based mental healthcare, being able to assess the success of the initiative from the perspective of program users becomes increasingly important. The 47-item PAI for community care offers a useful tool to identify barriers experienced by veterans in accessing mental healthcare in the community, overall and in specific settings, as well as to track the impact of interventions to improve access to mental healthcare.

Pyne JM ，Kelly PA ，Fischer EP ，Miller CJ ，Wright P ，Zamora K ，Koenig CJ ，Stanley R ，Seal K ，Fortney JC ... -  《-》

VA Outreach Is an Essential Area for Improving Veterans' Health Care Accessibility.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is tasked with providing access to health care to veterans of military service. However, many eligible veterans have either not yet enrolled or underutilized VHA services. Further study of barriers to access before veterans enroll in VHA care is necessary to understand how to address this issue. The ChooseVA (née MyVA Access) initiative aims to achieve this mission to improve veterans' health care access. Although veteran outreach was not specifically addressed by the initiative, it is a critical component of improving veterans' access to health care. Findings from this multisite evaluation of ChooseVA implementation describe sites' efforts to improve VHA outreach and veterans' experiences with access. This quality improvement evaluation employed a multi-method qualitative methodology, including 127 semi-structured interviews and 81 focus groups with VHA providers and staff ("VHA staff") completed during 21 VHA medical center facility site visits between July and November 2017 and 48 telephone interviews with veterans completed between May and October 2018. Interviews and focus groups were transcribed and analyzed using deductive and inductive analysis to capture challenges and strategies to improve VHA health care access (VHA staff data), experiences with access to care (veteran data), barriers and facilitators to care (staff and veteran data), contextual factors, and emerging categories and themes. We developed focused themes describing perceived challenges, descriptions of VHA staff efforts to improve veteran outreach, and veterans' experiences with accessing VHA health care. VHA staff and veteran respondents reported a lack of veteran awareness of eligibility for VHA services. Veterans reported limited understanding of the range of services offered. This awareness gap served as a barrier to veterans' ability to successfully access VHA health care services. Veterans described this awareness gap as contributing to delayed VHA enrollment and delayed or underutilized health care benefits and services. Staff focused on community outreach and engaging veterans for VHA enrollment as part of their efforts to implement the ChooseVA access initiative. Staff and veteran respondents agreed that outreach efforts were helpful for engaging veterans and facilitating access. Although efforts across VHA programs informed veterans about VHA services, our results suggest that both VHA staff and veterans agreed that missed opportunities exist. Gaps include veterans' lack of awareness or understanding of VHA benefits for which they qualify for. This can result in delayed access to care which may negatively impact veterans, including those separating from the military and vulnerable populations such as veterans who experience pregnancy or homelessness.

Stryczek KC ，Honsberger M ，Ball SL ，Barnard JG ，Young JP ，Felker B ，Au DH ，Ho PM ，Kirsh SR ，Sayre GG ... -  《-》

Veteran Experiences Seeking Non-pharmacologic Approaches for Pain.

Giannitrapani K ，McCaa M ，Haverfield M ，Kerns RD ，Timko C ，Dobscha S ，Lorenz K ... -  《-》

Development of the Perceived Access Inventory: A patient-centered measure of access to mental health care.

Pyne JM ，Kelly PA ，Fischer EP ，Miller CJ ，Wright P ，Zamora K ，Koenig CJ ，Stanley R ，Seal K ，Burgess JF ，Fortney JC ... -  《-》

Experiences with the Veterans' Choice Program.

Stroupe KT ，Martinez R ，Hogan TP ，Gordon EJ ，Gonzalez B ，Kale I ，Osteen C ，Tarlov E ，Weaver FM ，Hynes DM ，Smith BM ... -  《-》