Using Veterans Socials to Build a Community: Feasibility of the VOICES Intervention.

Increasing social connection and access to care has been found to decrease the rate of suicide in U.S. veterans. The Veteran Outreach Into the Community to Expand Social Support (VOICES) is an intervention developed by Department Veteran Affairs (VA) staff to improve social connection and provide information about services by implementing community-based Veterans Socials. Seventy veterans at eight locations completed an anonymous cross-sectional survey. This evaluation examined three domains, acceptability (i.e., perceived value), demand (i.e., estimated or actual use), and expansion (i.e., sustainability and increase of Veterans Socials across time and locations). Findings indicated considerable levels of acceptability, demand for, and expansion of this intervention. Additionally, data suggested this intervention may increase social connection and utilization of VA services among attendees.

Trauma-informed Drug Screens for Veterans with Co-occurring Disorders: A Case Series.

Objective: This case series describes and illustrates the effective use of a trauma-informed approach, GLAPE, to provide drug screens for individuals in substance use treatment programs. The GLAPE approach recognizes that individuals who have experienced traumatic events and are recovering from substance use difficulties may also face unique challenges when engaging in mental health treatment. The nature of drug screening procedures in practice may feel invasive and triggering for clients with trauma histories. Finding ways to decrease barriers to treatment and increase engagement and retention are important components of effective substance use treatment. Methods: This case series involved three veteran cisgender men with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring substance use conditions in an outpatient addiction recovery program in a Veterans' hospital. The cases illustrate how recovery can be aided by trauma-informed approaches for urine drug screens. The treatment team evaluated various monitoring modalities and collaborated with each client to form a treatment plan that implemented the GLAPE approach to bolster their recovery. The GLAPE approach includes five components: Giving detailed instructions prior to the urine screen procedure, listening to and eliciting questions and concerns of the client, articulating options and exhibiting flexibility in the procedure to accommodate the needs of the individual client, giving permission to the client to voice concerns at any point during the procedure, and evaluating the process in collaboration with the client, including what could be improved for next time. Results: Use of the GLAPE approach effectively helped to engage and retain military veterans with co-occurring PTSD and substance use disorder within a trauma informed outpatient program. Preliminary evidence from three cases provides that this approach may be useful for use in substance use treatment with clients who have trauma histories. Conclusions: Given widespread use of observed urine drug screens in substance use treatment programs, and prominent co-occurrence of substance use disorder and PTSD, it is essential that staff approach this procedure in a trauma-informed way. This case series illustrates an approach that can improve client experience, aid clients in treatment engagement, and assist staff in the provision of effective care.

Use of Social Robots in Mental Health and Well-Being Research: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Technology-assisted clinical interventions are increasingly common in the health care field, often with the proposed aim to improve access to and cost-effectiveness of care. Current technology platforms delivering interventions are largely mobile apps and online websites, although efforts have been made to create more personalized and embodied technology experiences. To extend and improve on these platforms, the field of robotics has been increasingly included in conversations of how to deliver technology-assisted, interactive, and responsive mental health and psychological well-being interventions. Socially assistive robots (SARs) are robotic technology platforms with audio, visual, and movement capabilities that are being developed to interact with individuals socially while also assisting them with management of their physical and psychological well-being. However, little is known about the empirical evidence or utility of using SARs in mental health interventions. OBJECTIVE: The review synthesizes and describes the nascent empirical literature of SARs in mental health research and identifies strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement in future research and practice. METHODS: Searches in Medline, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore yielded 12 studies included in the final review after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Abstract and full-text reviews were conducted by two authors independently. RESULTS: This systematic review of the literature found 5 distinct SARs used in research to investigate the potential for this technology to address mental health and psychological well-being outcomes. Research on mental health applications of SARs focuses largely on elderly dementia patients and relies on usability pilot data with methodological limitations. CONCLUSIONS: The current SARs research in mental health use is limited in generalizability, scope, and measurement of psychological outcomes. Opportunities for expansion of research in this area include diversifying populations studied, SARs used, clinical applications, measures used, and settings for those applications.

Correction to: Veteran Coffee Socials: A Community-Building Strategy for Enhancing Community Reintegration of Veterans.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake in co-author name and his affiliation. The author name should be Anthony Russo instead it was published as Antony Russo and his affiliation has been corrected.

Veteran Coffee Socials: A Community-Building Strategy for Enhancing Community Reintegration of Veterans.

Veterans transitioning from military to civilian life are vulnerable to a loss of social support and an increase in isolation from their communities, which can exacerbate other difficulties they may be experiencing, such as physical or mental health problems. Veteran Coffee Socials are an innovative community-building pilot intervention designed to foster social support and community between veterans. In seven target communities, certified peer specialists initiated and facilitated weekly "Veteran Coffee Socials"-open peer support groups for veterans, held in local coffee shop or restaurants. Over a 9-month period, an average of 8.5 veterans attended each meeting, for a total of 2236 veteran engagements across seven towns. A range of activities were identified as commonly occurring during these Veteran Coffee Socials. Veteran attendees routinely formed relationships with each other, representatives from community organizations, and staff from local and VA healthcare resources. One of the most common activities involved veterans receiving information and directions for enrollment into needed healthcare supports and to local community resources. Case descriptions are provided illustrate the potential positive impact of this intervention to build community and expand social support for returning veterans through the examination of three individual and three group examples.

Keeping Clubhouses Open: Toward a Roadmap for Sustainability.

Clubhouses are recovery centers that help persons with serious mental illness obtain and maintain community-based employment, education, housing, social integration, and other services. Key informants from U.S. clubhouses were interviewed to create a conceptual framework for clubhouse sustainability. Survival analyses tested this model for 261 clubhouses. Clubhouses stayed open significantly longer if they had received full accreditation, had more administrative autonomy, and received funding from multiple rather than sole sources. Cox regression analyses showed that freestanding clubhouses which were accredited endured the longest. Budget size, clubhouse size, and access to managed care did not contribute significantly to sustainability.

Perioperative implications of thoracic decortications: a retrospective cohort study.

PURPOSE: An increasing number of thoracic decortications have been performed in Manitoba, from five in 2007 to 45 in 2014. The primary objective of this study was to define the epidemiology of decortications in Manitoba. The secondary objective was to compare patients who underwent decortication due to primary infectious vs non-infectious etiology with respect to their perioperative outcomes. METHODS: Data for this cohort study were extracted from consecutive charts of all adult patients who underwent a decortication in Manitoba from 2007-2014 inclusive. RESULTS: One hundred ninety-two patients underwent a decortication. The most frequent disease processes resulting in a decortication were pneumonia (60%), trauma (13%), malignancy (8%), and procedural complications (5%). The number of decortications due to complications of pneumonia rose at the greatest rate, from three cases in 2007 to 29 cases in 2014. Performing a decortication for an infectious vs a non-infectious etiology was associated with a higher rate of the composite postoperative outcome of myocardial infarction, acute kidney injury, need of vasopressors for > 12 hr, and mechanical ventilation for > 48 hr (44.4% vs 24.2%, respectively; relative risk, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.9; P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: There has been a ninefold increase in decortications over an eight-year period. Potential causes include an increase in the incidence of pneumonia, increased organism virulence, host changes, and changes in practice patterns. Patients undergoing decortication for infectious causes had an increased risk for adverse perioperative outcomes. Anesthesiologists need to be aware of the high perioperative morbidity of these patients and the potential need for postoperative admission to an intensive care unit.

Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Staff Perceptions of Recovery Climate and Culture in Mental Health Programs.

OBJECTIVE: Few existing instruments measure recovery-oriented organizational climate and culture. This study developed, psychometrically assessed, and validated an instrument to measure recovery climate and culture. METHODS: Organizational theory and an evidence-based conceptualization of mental health recovery guided instrument development. Items from existing instruments were reviewed and adapted, and new items were developed as needed. All items were rated by recovery experts. A 35-item instrument was pilot-tested and administered to a national sample of mental health staff in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Centers (PRRCs). Analysis entailed an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and inter-item reliability and scale correlation assessment. Blinded site visits to four PRRCs were performed to validate the instrument. RESULTS: The EFA determined a seven-factor solution for the data. The factors identified were staff expectations, values, leadership, rewards, policies, education and training, and quality improvement. Seven items did not meet retention criteria and were dropped from the final instrument. The instrument exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.81; subscales, α=0.84-0.88). Scale correlations were between 0.16 and 0.61, well below the threshold (α=0.9) for indicating overlapping constructs. Site visitors validated the instrument by correctly identifying high-scoring and low-scoring centers. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a psychometrically tested and validated instrument for measuring recovery climate and culture in mental health programs. This instrument can be used in evaluation of mental health services to determine the extent to which programs possess the organizational precursors that drive recovery-oriented service delivery.

A site visit protocol for assessing recovery promotion at the program level: An example from the Veterans Health Administration.

OBJECTIVE: A site visit protocol was developed to assess recovery promotion in the organizational climate and culture of programs for veterans with serious mental illnesses. METHOD: The protocol was pilot-tested in 4 programs: 2 that had scored high on the pilot version of a staff survey measure of program-level recovery promotion and 2 that had scored low. Two-person teams conducted onsite visits and assigned global and organizational domain ratings. Interrater agreement was assessed by examining adjacent agreement and computing weighted kappa. RESULTS: The on-site protocol had good interrater agreement and discriminated between sites that scored high and low on the staff survey. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This site visit protocol and procedure shows promise for evaluating recovery promotion in milieu-based programs. After further refinement of this tool, adaptations could be developed for accreditation protocols or for program self-assessment and quality improvement efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Using peer support groups to enhance community integration of veterans in transition.

Peer support groups, also known as "self-help groups," provide a unique tool for helping veterans working through the military-to-civilian transition to achieve higher levels of social support and community integration. The number and variety of community-based peer support groups has grown to the point that there are now more visits to these groups each year than to mental health professionals. The focus of these groups on the provision of social support, the number and variety of groups, the lack of cost, and their availability in the community make them a natural transition tool for building community-based social support. A growing literature suggests that these groups are associated with measurable improvements in social support, clinical symptoms, self-efficacy and coping. For clinical populations, the combination of peer support groups and clinical care results in better outcomes than either alone. Given this evidence, we suggest clinical services use active referral strategies to help veterans engage in peer support groups as a means of improving community reintegration and clinical outcomes. Finally, suggestions for identifying appropriate peer support groups and assisting with active referrals are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record

Promising practices in vocational services for the community reintegration of returning veterans: The individual placement and support model and beyond.

Supporting returning veterans' job-seeking, hiring, and retention issues has become an essential goal for effective community reintegration. Given both the particular strengths and challenges associated with veterans transitioning from military to civilian life, multiple models for supported employment have become integrated into Veterans Affairs health care facilities across the nation. In this article, we review the state of vocational rehabilitation for veterans, with a particular focus on individual placement and support-supported employment (IPS-SE), the current vocational services model that is considered the gold standard of vocational rehabilitation. Various modifications to the IPS-SE model are presented, including additions such as cognitive rehabilitation, contingency management, motivational interviewing, supported self-employment, and transitional work. Finally, recommendations are made about future directions and strategies to expand access to IPS-SE-based programs and to effectively meet the needs of returning veterans for employment in jobs of their choice. (PsycINFO Database Record