Impact of Implementation Facilitation on the REACH VET Clinical Program for Veterans at Risk for Suicide.

OBJECTIVE: In 2017, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented a national suicide prevention program, called Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET), that uses a predictive algorithm to identify, attempt to reach, assess, and care for patients at the highest risk for suicide. The authors aimed to evaluate whether facilitation enhanced implementation of REACH VET at VHA facilities not meeting target completion rates. METHODS: In this hybrid effectiveness-implementation type 2 program evaluation, a quasi-experimental pre-post design was used to assess changes in implementation outcome measures evaluated 6 months before and 6 months after onset of facilitation of REACH VET implementation at 23 VHA facilities. Measures included percentages of patients with documented coordinator and provider acknowledgment of receipt, care evaluation, and outreach attempt. Generalized estimating equations were used to compare differences in REACH VET outcome measures before and after facilitation. Qualitative interviews were conducted with personnel and were explored via template analysis. RESULTS: Time had a significant effect in all outcomes models (p<0.001). An effect of facilitation was significant only for the outcome of attempted outreach. Patients identified by REACH VET had significantly higher odds of having a documented outreach attempt after facilitation of REACH VET implementation, compared with before facilitation. Site personnel felt supported and reported that the external facilitators were helpful and responsive. CONCLUSIONS: Facilitation of REACH VET implementation was associated with an improvement in outreach attempts to veterans identified as being at increased risk for suicide. Outreach is critical for engaging veterans in care.

The Veterans Health Administration REACH VET Program: Suicide Predictive Modeling in Practice.

The U.S. Veterans Health Administration developed a suicide prediction statistical model and implemented a novel clinical program, Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET). This high-value suicide prevention program aims to efficiently identify patients at risk and connect them with care. Starting in April 2017, national REACH VET metric data were collected from electronic health records to evaluate required task completion. By October 2020, 98% of veterans identified (N=6,579) were contacted by providers and had their care evaluated. In the nation's largest health care system, it was feasible to implement a clinical program based on a suicide prediction model.

Therapeutic Risk Management for Violence: Safety Planning for Other-directed Violence.

Therapeutic management of risk for other-directed violence (ODV) involves screening, assessment, and clinically appropriate intervention. In this 5-part series, effective screening and assessment for ODV have been described as a combination of clinical interviewing and the use of structured tools to inform clinical impressions of both acute and chronic risk for violence. Once risk of violence is identified, therapeutic management of the risk throughout the course of treatment is best achieved by determining the function of the violent ideation and behavior. This can be achieved through the use of functional chain analysis. Chain analysis not only serves the purpose of providing insight into the contingencies of violent behavior but also helps to identify target areas of intervention where other skills, strategies, and means to access resources for support can be applied. In this fifth and final column of the series, we describe an intervention with all of these outcomes as its goals. A safety plan for ODV assists both clients and mental health professionals in disrupting patterns of violent ideation or behavior that would otherwise continue causing not only harm to others but prolonged negative consequences for those engaging in such behaviors.

Therapeutic Risk Management for Violence: Chain Analysis of Other-directed Violent Ideation and Behavior.

Violence risk assessment is a requisite component of mental health treatment. Adhering to standards of care and ethical and legal requirements necessitates a cogent process for conducting, and then documenting, other-directed violence (ODV) risk screening, assessment, and management. In this 5-part series, we describe a model for achieving therapeutic risk management of the potentially violent patient, with essential elements involving: clinical interview augmented by structured screening or assessment tools; risk stratification in terms of temporality and severity; chain analysis to intervene on the functions of ODV ideation and behavior; and a personalized safety plan to mitigate/manage risk. In this fourth column of the series, we describe chain analysis as a critical tool for assessing and intervening on ODV ideation and behavior. We identify the pathways of reinforcement that can cause ODV to persist, and how to navigate potential barriers to completing ODV chains. Using a case example, we demonstrate how to apply chain analysis to ODV ideation and behavior and offer interventional strategies that can be used to disrupt the chain and ultimately reduce the risk for violence.

Therapeutic Risk Management for Violence: Stratifying Risk and Characterizing Violence.

Violence risk assessment is a requisite component of mental health treatment. Adhering to standards of care and ethical and legal requirements necessitates a cogent process for conducting, and then documenting, other-directed violence risk screening, assessment, and management. In this 5-part series, we describe a model for achieving therapeutic risk management of the potentially violent patient, with essential elements involving: clinical interview augmented by structured screening or assessment tools; risk stratification in terms of temporality and severity; chain analysis to intervene on the functions of violent ideation and behavior; and personalized safety plans to mitigate/manage risk. This third column in the series describes other-directed violence risk stratification in terms of both severity and temporality, as well an approach for characterizing (ie, predatory/planned or impulsive/reactive) the violence risk posed by an individual.

Therapeutic Risk Management for Violence: Augmenting Clinical Risk Assessment With Structured Instruments.

Violence risk assessment is a requisite component of mental health treatment. Adhering to standards of care and ethical and legal requirements necessitates a cogent process for conducting, and then documenting, other-directed violence risk screening, assessment, and management. In this 5-part series, we describe a model for achieving therapeutic risk management of the potentially violent patient, with essential elements involving: clinical interview augmented by structured screening or assessment tools; risk stratification in terms of temporality and severity; chain analysis to intervene on the functions of violent ideation and behavior; and a personalized safety plan to mitigate/manage risk. This second column in the series describes the advantages of, and offers suggestions for, incorporating structured tools into violence risk assessment.

Therapeutic Risk Management for Violence: Clinical Risk Assessment.

Violence risk assessment is a requisite component of mental health treatment. Adhering to standards of care and ethical and legal requirements necessitates a cogent process for conducting (and documenting) screening, assessment, and management of other-directed violence risk. In this 5-part series, we describe a model for achieving therapeutic risk management of the potentially violent patient, with essential elements involving a clinical interview augmented by structured screening or assessment tools; risk stratification in terms of temporality and severity; chain analysis to intervene on the functions of violent ideation and behavior; and development of a personalized safety plan. This first column of the series focuses on essential aspects of the clinical interview.