skip to page content
Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website
Publication Briefs

Integrated Primary Care Clinic Improves Access to Mental Health and Social Services for OEF/OIF Veterans


BACKGROUND:
Despite population-based mental health screening by the military and VA, most OEF/OIF Veterans with mental health problems do not access or receive an adequate course of mental health treatment. In response, system-wide priorities were identified for VA primary care, which motivated the establishment of an OEF/OIF Integrated Care (IC) Clinic at the San Francisco VAMC in April 2007. An initial IC clinic visit consists of three optional sessions with a team of primary care, mental health, and social services providers. This retrospective study evaluated whether an initial IC clinic visit improved mental health and social services use among OEF/OIF Veterans entering primary care at the San Francisco VAMC, compared to Veterans who received usual care (standard primary care visit with referral for a psychosocial visit, as needed). Using VA data, investigators identified 526 OEF/OIF Veterans (male and female) who had their first primary care visit between 4/05 and 4/09.

FINDINGS:

  • Compared to OEF/OIF Veterans receiving usual care, OEF/OIF Veterans seen in the Integrated Care (IC) clinic were significantly more likely to have had initial mental health and social work evaluations within 30 days (59% vs. 92% and 56% vs. 77%, respectively). Moreover, IC clinic patients were significantly more likely than usual care patients to have had at least one follow-up specialty mental health visit within 90 days of initiating primary care (42% vs. 29%).
  • In adjusted analyses, women Veterans, younger Veterans, and those with positive mental health and TBI screens were significantly more likely to have had mental health and social service evaluations if seen in the IC versus the usual care clinic. For example, women Veterans who presented to the IC clinic were nearly three times more likely to have received initial mental health and social services evaluations within 30 days of initiating primary care.
  • While the Integrated Clinic increased initial mental health evaluations, there was no significant increase in longer-term retention in specialty mental health services among Veterans who screened positive for mental health problems.
  • The IC clinic significantly increased initial mental health care for OEF/OIF Veterans over and beyond improvements already occurring over time in primary care at the San Francisco VAMC. Whereas 25% of Veterans seen in the usual primary care clinic before April 2007 had at least one mental health evaluation within 30 days of initiating primary care, that figure increased to 59% among those who presented to primary care after April 2007 and 92% among those who presented to the IC clinic after 2007.

LIMITATIONS:

  • These results are based on administrative data from only one VAMC.
  • Investigators did not have access to data on non-VA mental health and social services utilization.

AUTHOR/FUNDING INFORMATION:
This study was funded by DoD. Dr. Seal is part of HSR&D’s Program to Improve Care for Veterans with Complex Comorbid Conditions, San Francisco.


PubMed Logo Seal K, Cohen G, Bertenthal D, et al. Reducing Barriers to Mental Health and Social Services for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans: Outcomes of an Integrated Primary Care Clinic. Journal of General Internal Medicine June 7, 2011;e-pub ahead of print.

Related Briefs

» next 99 Access Briefs...


» next 224 Mental Health Briefs...


» next 93 OEF/OIF Briefs...


What are HSR Publication Briefs?

HSR requires notification by HSR-funded investigators about all articles accepted for publication. These journal articles are reviewed by HSR and publication briefs or summaries are written for a select number of articles that are then forwarded to VHA Central Office leadership to keep them informed about important findings or information. Articles to be summarized are selected by HSR based on timeliness of the findings, interest of leadership, or potential impact on the organization. Publication briefs are written for only a small number of HSR published articles. Visit the HSR citations database for a complete listing of HSR articles and presentations.


Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.