ABSTRACT
There has been a general increase in psychiatric symptoms since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Literature that has been published since the start of the pandemic has indicated there is an increased risk of depression, insomnia, altered mental status, new-onset psychosis, neurocognitive syndrome, and anxiety. The military veteran population is at higher risk for psychiatric illness than the general population, and should be screened accordingly. This quality improvement project was developed in collaboration with the mental health clinic at urban medical center in the Midwest to identify new symptoms of mental illness after COVID-19 diagnosis utilizing the PDSA model and descriptive statistics. Veterans were screened via telephone for depression, anxiety, psychosis, PTSD, and dementia utilizing the PHQ-9, GAD- 7, PCCL, PCL-5 and TMMS. A 6% positivity rate for symptoms of new onset mental illness was found in a sample size of 50. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)