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Suicide Prevention

VA’s Video Telehealth Tablets, Access to Mental Health Care, Suicide Risk Assessment, and Suicidal Behavior among Rural and Urban Veterans


by Kritee Gujral, PhD
Seminar date: 5/8/2023

Description: This presentation describes the impact of VA’s escalated distribution of video-enabled tablets to Veterans with access barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate Veterans’ participation in video telehealth on Veterans’ mental health service use, suicide risk assessment, and suicidal behavior. The presentation includes descriptions of some differences in the use of tablets among rural vs. urban Veterans, Black vs. white Veterans and women vs. men. Finally, the presentation will preview early insights about VA’s universal screening requirement implemented in November 2020, which suggest that a universal approach to screening may be especially advantageous for patients in rural areas who may have fewer health care interactions due to the higher barriers they face in accessing mental health care.

View archived session video:



DOWNLOAD: PDF handout | Audio only (mp3) | transcript not yet available


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