Treating Veterans and Military Families: Evidence Based Practices and Training Needs Among Community Clinicians

• Published in: Community mental health journal Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 215 - 223
• Main Authors: Richards, Lauren K., Bui, Eric, Charney, Meredith, Hayes, Katherine Clair, Baier, Allison L., Rauch, Paula K., Allard, Michael, Simon, Naomi M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Armed forces; Clinical training; Cognition; Community and Environmental Psychology; Community health care; Community Health Services; Community mental health services; Computer based; Evidence based; Evidence-based medicine; Evidence-Based Practice; Familiarity; Families & family life; Health care; Health care management; Health Personnel - education; Health services; Humans; Internet; Likert scale; Medical personnel; Medical screening; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental health; Mental health care; Mental health professionals; Mental health services; Military Family - psychology; Military service; Needs; New England; Original Paper; Physicians; Post traumatic stress disorder; Professionals; Psychiatry; Supervision; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tests; Training; Training needs; Traumatic brain injury; United States; Veterans; Veterans - psychology; New York; United States > US; Iraq; Evidence based treatment; Community provider; Dissemination; Implementation
• ISSN: 0010-3853; 1573-2789
• DOI: 10.1007/s10597-016-0013-7

Little is known about the capacity of community providers to provide military informed evidence based services for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a regional, web-based survey of 352 community mental health care providers that sought to identify clinical practices, training needs, and predictors of evidence based treatment (EBT) use for PTSD. Overall, 49 % of providers indicated they seldom or never use a validated PTSD screening instrument. Familiarity with EBTs, specifically prolonged exposure (PE; χ 2 (4) = 14.68, p  < .01) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT; χ 2 (4) = 4.55, p  < .05), differed by provider type. Of providers who received training in PE or CPT (N = 121), 75 % reported using treatment in their practice, which was associated with having received clinical supervision (χ 2  (1) = 20.16, p  < .001). Widely disseminated trainings in empirically supported PTSD assessment and treatment, and implementation of case supervision in community settings are needed.