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Mental Health Link for Veterans Referred to Mental Health Services (MHL)

6. listopadu 2026 aktualizováno: VA Office of Research and Development

Mental Health Link: Text Based Support for Veterans Waiting to Initiate Mental Health Services for Depression

Overview:

Depression is common among Veterans. About 1 in 6 Veterans experiences depression at any given time, and about half may experience it during their lifetime. Without treatment, depression can contribute to substance use, poor health, suicide, and early death. However, many people delay or do not receive treatment. Fewer than one-third of Veterans with depression use psychotherapy. Although the VA is working to improve access to mental health care, staffing shortages can lead to long wait times. These waiting periods may provide an opportunity to support Veterans and help them prepare for treatment.

Mental Health Link:

The research team developed Mental Health Link (MHL), a text-based process that supports Veterans while they wait for mental health services. MHL helps patients better understand their emotions and symptoms and offers simple coping strategies they can use right away while waiting.

Study Goals:

The study will examine whether MHL helps Veterans during the wait period and with treatment engagement. The study will also ask Veterans and providers about what helps or prevents MHL from being used in routine care.

Study Design:

Over five years, the study will compare MHL with usual care at three VA sites. It will include 192 Veterans referred to psychotherapy for depression. The results will show whether MHL improves participation in treatment and helps Veterans while they wait for services.

In the future, these findings may help the VA expand MHL and other effective mental health and suicide-prevention services.

Přehled studie

Postavení

Zatím nenabíráme

Podmínky

Intervence / Léčba

Detailní popis

Background: Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health concerns among Veterans. Nearly 1 in 6 Veterans has the disorder at any given time and 50% of Veterans meet criteria for depression at some point in their lives. Depression is associated with significant adverse outcomes, and untreated can result in drug abuse, poor health outcomes, suicide and other-cause mortality. Adults with depression often delay and underutilize treatment, and such delays in care are associated with low treatment utilization.

Significance: Psychotherapy utilization rates for depression among Veterans over the past two decades have stayed below 34%. VHA has organizational priorities to decrease system barriers through various strategies. Despite these efforts, the VHA has a critical national staffing shortage. Fortunately, mental health visit wait times can be leveraged as an opportune moment to support and prepare Veteran patients for upcoming visits. Currently, there are no tools to provide support to Veterans while they wait for mental health services.

Innovation and Impact: To address this gap in care, our team developed and pilot-tested Mental Health Link (MHL),an innovative solution that does not rely on reducing wait times, but rather leverages wait times to provide support and prepare Veterans for care. MHL is a semi-autonomous text-based tool designed to improve emotional and symptom awareness, and provide support during wait periods through sharing easy to implement coping strategies.

Specific Aims. Aim 1: Determine the effect of MHL on psychotherapy initiation and adherence (number of sessions completed). Aim 2: Determine the effect of MHL on emotional awareness, a sense of connectedness, and satisfaction with the VA and mental health service. Aim 3: Identify determinants, strategies, and perceived outcomes in a subsample of MHL users (n = 24) and their providers (n = 24) to inform an implementation research logic model and intervention mapping.

Methodology: The investigators propose a 3-site, 5-year mixed-method hybrid I randomized control trial (RCT) using an altered Zelen design to compare MHL to usual care in a sample of Veterans (N = 192) referred to psychotherapy for depression. In Aim 1, the investigators will employ logistic regression and poison regression to estimate the difference between the intervention and control groups in treatment initiation rates and number of sessions (i.e., treatment adherence), respectively. In Aim 2, the investigators will employ repeated measures MANCOVAs to test for the interaction between time and group on proposed outcomes: positive and negative emotional awareness, sense of connectedness and satisfaction. For Aim 3 the investigators will use a qualitative matrix-analysis framework to analyze focus group data to identify other factors related to Aims 1 and 2 outcomes for triangulation and key determinants of implementation of MHL into clinical flow. Next Steps/Implementation. By identifying determinants of implementation the investigators will target facilitators and barriers to integrate MHL into the mental health service workflow. This work will also provide evidence of effectiveness outcomes. Overall, findings will facilitate the development of a follow-up Merit, Type II Hybrid RCT, focused on implementation and effectiveness outcomes. In the long-term, this work will support the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based mental health and suicide prevention practices by optimizing access to care, using value-based care systems.

Typ studie

Intervenční

Zápis (Odhadovaný)

192

Fáze

  • Nelze použít

Kontakty a umístění

Tato část poskytuje kontaktní údaje pro ty, kteří studii provádějí, a informace o tom, kde se tato studie provádí.

Studijní kontakt

Studijní záloha kontaktů

Studijní místa

    • Colorado
      • Aurora, Colorado, Spojené státy, 80045-7211
        • Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, Aurora, CO
        • Kontakt:
    • Florida
      • Tampa, Florida, Spojené státy, 33612
        • James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, FL
        • Kontakt:
    • Illinois
      • Hines, Illinois, Spojené státy, 60141-3030
        • Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL
        • Vrchní vyšetřovatel:
          • Vanessa Panaite, PhD
        • Kontakt:

Kritéria účasti

Výzkumníci hledají lidi, kteří odpovídají určitému popisu, kterému se říká kritéria způsobilosti. Některé příklady těchto kritérií jsou celkový zdravotní stav osoby nebo předchozí léčba.

Kritéria způsobilosti

Věk způsobilý ke studiu

18 let a starší (Dospělý, Starší dospělý)

Přijímá zdravé dobrovolníky

Ne

Pohlaví způsobilá ke studiu

Všechno

Popis

Inclusion Criteria:

-Veterans who receive a referral to psychotherapy for depression in a specialty care clinic (i.e., Mental Health Clinic at the VA or through VA Community Care)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Have current suicidal ideation with intent of self-harm in the last week
  • Have current homicidal ideation with plans to hurt a specific person or have a clinical flag for disruptive behavior in their chart
  • Have visual impairment that will impact completion of self-reports
  • Have current diagnoses of bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders, memory and cognitive disorders
  • Have referrals only to psychiatry or to a substance use disorder clinic
  • Are hospitalized, in order to focus on their intensive care

Studijní plán

Tato část poskytuje podrobnosti o studijním plánu, včetně toho, jak je studie navržena a co studie měří.

Jak je studie koncipována?

Detaily designu

  • Primární účel: Léčba
  • Přidělení: Randomizované
  • Intervenční model: Paralelní přiřazení
  • Maskování: Žádné (otevřený štítek)

Zbraně a zásahy

Skupina účastníků / Arm
Intervence / Léčba
Experimentální: Mental Health Link (MHL)

Participants receive the fully automated MHL intervention through VA Qualtrics while awaiting their first specialty mental health appointment. Following the baseline survey, a welcome text activates twice-weekly check-ins and twice-weekly support messages until two days before the appointment. Check-ins collect patient-generated feedback on mood, PHQ-8 symptoms, daily event appraisals, emotions, and emotion intensity. Participants may skip any task. Support messages provide practical coping strategies. PHQ-8 scores ≥15 or heightened negative emotions trigger automated messages with contact information for the participant's existing care providers, the Veterans Crisis Line (call, chat, or text), and 911. At completion, a data manager prepares a summary of check-in data, uploads it to the medical chart, and alerts the participant's providers.

Mental Health Link (MHL) is a text-based process that supports Veterans with depression while they wait to begin mental health care. Twice a week, it helps Veterans check in on daily events, emotions, and depression symptoms while offering brief, practical coping strategies based on evidence-based therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral activation, and acceptance and commitment therapy. MHL was tailored with input from Veterans to improve emotional awareness and monitor changes in symptoms.

Žádný zásah: Usual Care Control

Veterans assigned to this control arm receive usual care while awaiting their initial specialty mental health appointment. They may passively wait or receive psychiatric care or brief supportive psychotherapy through primary care. Half of the Veterans randomized to usual care will be invited to join an observational study examining their experiences with and use of mental health services. These participants will complete baseline and exit surveys to improve prediction and understanding of treatment initiation and utilization, because medical chart data alone have not produced robust predictive models. All study procedures are conducted for research purposes only, although the procedures and measures are similar to those used in standard mental health care.

Co je měření studie?

Primární výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Effectiveness of Intervention as Assessed by Rate of Depression Treatment Initiation
Časové okno: An average of 30 weeks

The investigators will evaluate % mental health treatment initiation relative to the control arm.

Treatment initiation is defined as initial mental health appointment being completed.

An average of 30 weeks
Effectiveness of Intervention as Assessed by Rate of Depression Treatment Adherence
Časové okno: An average of 30 weeks

The investigators will evaluate number of mental health treatment sessions completed relative to the control arm.

Treatment adherence is defined as continuing treatment past initiation.

An average of 30 weeks
Emotional Awareness
Časové okno: An average of 30 weeks

Emotional awareness will be derived based on statistical modeling.

An average of 30 weeks
Social Connectedness Scale
Časové okno: Week 1 and an average of 30 weeks

Sense of Connectedness. On a scale from 0-10, how connected do you feel to the mental health service at your VA? Please write about your experience with Mental Health Link (MHL) that may have affected your sense of connectedness to the VA mental health service.

Week 1 and an average of 30 weeks
Client Satisfaction Questionnaire
Časové okno: Week 1 and an average of 30 weeks

Satisfaction with services. The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire consists of eight items, each rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from negative to positive responses (e.g., 1 = none of my needs met, 4 = almost all of my needs met).

Week 1 and an average of 30 weeks
Barriers and Facilitators of Mental Health Link (MHL) Future Implementation
Časové okno: An average of 30 weeks

Barriers and facilitators of Mental Health Link (MHL) future implementation will be assessed through qualitative interviews with Veterans and mental health providers.

An average of 30 weeks

Spolupracovníci a vyšetřovatelé

Zde najdete lidi a organizace zapojené do této studie.

Sponzor

Spolupracovníci

Vyšetřovatelé

  • Vrchní vyšetřovatel: Vanessa Panaite, PhD, Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL

Termíny studijních záznamů

Tato data sledují průběh záznamů studie a předkládání souhrnných výsledků na ClinicalTrials.gov. Záznamy ze studií a hlášené výsledky jsou před zveřejněním na veřejné webové stránce přezkoumány Národní lékařskou knihovnou (NLM), aby se ujistily, že splňují specifické standardy kontroly kvality.

Hlavní termíny studia

Začátek studia (Odhadovaný)

1. května 2027

Primární dokončení (Odhadovaný)

1. prosince 2031

Dokončení studie (Odhadovaný)

1. prosince 2031

Termíny zápisu do studia

První předloženo

6. listopadu 2026

První předloženo, které splnilo kritéria kontroly kvality

6. listopadu 2026

První zveřejněno (Aktuální)

13. listopadu 2026

Aktualizace studijních záznamů

Poslední zveřejněná aktualizace (Aktuální)

13. listopadu 2026

Odeslaná poslední aktualizace, která splnila kritéria kontroly kvality

6. listopadu 2026

Naposledy ověřeno

1. listopadu 2026

Více informací

Termíny související s touto studií

Další identifikační čísla studie

  • HSR4-024-25W

Plán pro data jednotlivých účastníků (IPD)

Plánujete sdílet data jednotlivých účastníků (IPD)?

NE

Informace o lécích a zařízeních, studijní dokumenty

Studuje lékový produkt regulovaný americkým FDA

Ne

Studuje produkt zařízení regulovaný americkým úřadem FDA

Ne

produkt vyrobený a vyvážený z USA

Ne

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