November 14, 2014

On Nov. 13, MOAA joined with the United Health Foundation and the RAND Corporation to release a groundbreaking study “Ready to Serve,” an assessment of community-based provider ability to deliver quality care to veterans and their families.

To draw attention to these issues, MOAA co-hosted a Capitol Hill briefing to present the findings of the report to Congressional staffers. The forum included a panel of clinical mental health care experts, military family members, and researchers. They discussed the impact of the findings and implications for increasing providers’ abilities to understand and treat the special needs of the military and veteran populations, especially in rural areas.

"It is crucial that our civilian mental health providers acquire the training and perspective they need to guide their practice in the care of our military, and we need to instill a sense of urgency in making this happen,” said MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, USN (Ret) in opening remarks.

Despite important strides over the past decade in improving health care in DoD and the VA, research shows that many veterans prefer to seek care in civilian networks.

The study surveyed civilian behavioral health providers to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and preferences for delivering mental health services to servicemembers, veterans, and military families.

The report found that most civilian mental health providers are not well prepared to treat – nor understand the special needs of – military veterans and their families.

“There is a need for increased training among community-based providers in high quality treatment techniques for PTSD and other disorders that are more common among veterans,” said Terri Tanielian, the study's lead author and a senior social research analyst at RAND.

Only 13 percent of the mental health providers surveyed met the study’s readiness criteria for both cultural competency and delivering evidence-based care.

The study found that many civilian providers don’t fully understand military culture or use evidence-based approaches to treat problems commonly seen among servicemembers and veterans, such as PTSD.

The release of the study is timely, as veterans enrolled in VA care have recently been allowed to receive care in the private sector in some instances.

We hope the findings will aid the development of additional training and resources for providers and enhance cultural awareness of issues such as PTSD and depression.