Providing Mental Health Services to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)/Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Veterans

Overview

The purpose of this study is to gather information from VISN 19 Denver VA mental health professionals regarding their perspectives of necessary resources to provide best practice mental health service to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Veterans. Specifically, this study aims to describe provider perspectives regarding the following: a) clinical needs of OIF/OEF Veterans; b) collaboration and referral processes; c) barriers to providing optimal treatment to this cohort d) provider needs and resources that may improve service delivery to this cohort; e) provider perspectives regarding psychiatric outcomes in this cohort; and f) professional satisfaction. Support for this study is provided by previous research evaluating Veteran's Administration (VA) needs to provide service to OIF/OEF Veterans (Sayer, et al. 2009; Friedmann-Sanchez, et al. 2008). The above information will be obtained using semi-structured interview. Hypotheses are not provided as this is an exploratory qualitative study.

No hypotheses are associated with this study as this is a qualitative study wherein subjects will participate in a semi-structured interview developed specifically for this study, which serves as the outcome measure. Up to 30 providers will be interviewed. Data Analysis Interviews will be transcribed in their entirety and de-identified. Dr. Signoracci and 4 additional MRIECC researchers will independently code each interview for themes. Finally, group meetings with Dr. Signoracci and MIRECC researchers will be held in order to achieve larger consensus regarding such unique and universal themes (Rubin \& Rubin, 1995). Any reporting of information regarding: a) length of time employed at Denver VA; b) length of time employed within VA system; c) provider professional title; d) provider degree; f) professional licenses held; g) clinic/service in which provide services will be done in the aggregate, across clinics. No individual data will be reported with respect to these items. Also, any selected quotes that are reported will remain de-identified. Power analyses will not be conducted because no hypothesis quantitative testing is being done, and therefore there are no parameters to estimate. With qualitative designs one conducts interviews until reaching the saturation point. In other words, subsequent interviews do not yield any new information (Rubin \& Rubin, 1995). Previous experience (Brenner et al., 2008) suggests that 25 completed interviews should provide a wide enough range of responses for important themes to emerge.