Delivering Clinical Practice Guideline-Concordant Care for PTSD and Major Depression in Military Treatment Facilities

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) strives to maintain a physically and psychologically healthy, mission-ready force, and the care provided by the Military Health System (MHS) is critical to meeting this goal. Given the rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) among U.S. service members, attention has been directed to ensuring the quality and availability of programs and services targeting these and other psychological health conditions. Understanding the capacity of the MHS and its providers to deliver high-quality care for PTSD and MDD is an important step in support of future efforts to improve care across the MHS. DoD's Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) asked the RAND Corporation to conduct an assessment of the capacity of the MHS to deliver evidence-based care for PTSD and MDD and to recommend areas in which the MHS could focus its efforts to continuously improve the quality of care provided to all servicemembers. This document is the final report on the results of that study. Specifically, this report (1) provides an overview of the psychological health (PH) workforce at military treatment facilities (MTFs), (2) describes the extent to which PH providers within MTFs report delivering guideline-concordant care for PTSD and MDD, (3) identifies facilitators and barriers to providing this care, and (4) provides recommendations to increase the use and monitoring of guideline-concordant care for PTSD and MDD. It complements other RAND studies that have examined administrative data and medical records of service members diagnosed with PTSD or depression to assess the types of care they actually received.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1085318

Entities

People

  • Asa Wilks
  • Carrie M. Farmer
  • Coreen A. Farris
  • Harold A. Pincus
  • Kimberly A Hepner
  • Michael Robbins
  • Praise O. Iyiewuare
  • Susan M. Paddock
  • Terri Tanielian

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Antidepressants
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Brain Injuries
  • Cognition
  • Depression
  • Employment
  • Health Services
  • Iraqi-War
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychiatry
  • Psychology
  • Psychotherapy
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.