Use of Veterans Health Administration Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment After Exiting Prison: The Health Care for Reentry Veterans Program

The Veterans Health Administration (VA) Health Care for Reentry Veterans (HCRV) program links veterans exiting prison with treatment. Among veterans served by HCRV, national VA clinical data were used to describe contact with VA health care, and mental health and substance use disorder diagnoses and treatment use. 

Of veterans seen for an HCRV outreach visit, 56% had contact with VA health care. Prevalence of mental health disorders was 57%; of whom 77% entered mental health treatment within a month of diagnosis. Prevalence of substance use disorders was 49%; of whom 37% entered substance use disorder treatment within a month of diagnosis. 

For veterans exiting prison, increasing access to VA health care, especially for rural veterans, and for substance use disorder treatment, are important quality improvement targets.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/IyG9yf

By:   Finlay AK1, Stimmel M2, Blue-Howells J3, Rosenthal J4, McGuire J5, Binswanger I6,7, Smelson D8,9, Harris AH10, Frayne SM11,12,13, Bowe T14, Timko C15,16.

• 1Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. andrea.finlay@va.gov.
• 2Veterans Justice Programs, Department of Veterans Affairs, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. matthew.stimmel@va.gov.
• 3Veterans Justice Programs, Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 11301 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90073, USA. jessica.blue-howells@va.gov.
• 4Veterans Justice Programs, Department of Veterans Affairs, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. joel.rosenthal@va.gov.
• 5Veterans Justice Programs, Department of Veterans Affairs, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. jimfmcguire@yahoo.com.
• 6Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research, 10065 E. Harvard Avenue, Suite 300, Denver, CO, 80231, USA. ingrid.a.binswanger@kp.org.
• 7Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 12631 E. 17th Avenue, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA. ingrid.a.binswanger@kp.org.
• 8National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, 200 Springs Road, Bedford, MA, 01730, USA. david.smelson@umassmed.edu.
• 9Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 N Lake Avenue, Worcester, MA, 01655, USA. david.smelson@umassmed.edu.
• 10Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. alexander.harris2@va.gov.
• 11Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. susan.frayne@va.gov.
• 12Women's Health Service, Medical Service, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA. susan.frayne@va.gov.
• 13Division of General Medical Disciplines, Stanford University School of Medicine, 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. susan.frayne@va.gov.
• 14Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. thomas.bowe@va.gov.
• 15Center for Innovation to Implementation (Ci2i), VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. ctimko@stanford.edu.
• 16Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA. ctimko@stanford.edu. 

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv_insight

And: http://twitter.com/Prison_Health