{"id":217634,"date":"2022-10-07T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=217634"},"modified":"2022-10-07T14:09:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T18:09:53","slug":"increasing-mental-health-providers-may-reduce-suicides-among-veterans","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2022\/increasing-mental-health-providers-may-reduce-suicides-among-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Increasing Mental Health Providers May Reduce Suicides among Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-text-over-image has-media has-box has-media-focus-center-middle has-text-position-x-center has-text-position-y-bottom has-light-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-scaled.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"Two men participating in group therapy at community center.\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-636x424.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-755x503.jpg 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/10\/mhstaffing-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner has-opacity-80\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">veteran health<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIncreasing Mental Health Providers May Reduce Suicides among Veterans\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Increasing mental health providers at the Veterans Health Administration likely reduced suicides among veterans who recently returned from active service.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">October 7, 2022<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/jillian-mckoy\/\">Jillian McKoy<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>Suicide rates in the United States have surged over the past two decades, but the number of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers who can provide mental health care is getting smaller and smaller, leaving the majority of US counties unable to meet this need in their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, a new study led by School of Public Health researchers has found that this shortage of mental health care may contribute to an increase in suicide-related events (SREs) among veterans, a population that is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/washington\/testimony\/2022\/t20220615.htm#:~:text=Veteran%20suicide%2Drelated%20deaths%20are,30%25%20in%20the%20general%20population.\">burdened<\/a> by suicide at a greater rate than the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/1475-6773.14064\">Published in the journal <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/1475-6773.14064\"><em>Health Services Research<\/em><\/a>, the study examined changes in mental health staffing services at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and SREs among veterans, and found that an increase in mental health staffing led to a reduction in SREs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings indicate that targeted efforts to expand the mental health workforce at the VA\u2014and more broadly throughout the healthcare system\u2014would likely reduce suicidality and improve health outcomes for veterans and other patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is an especially important finding, because policymakers are actively looking for ways to reduce suicidality,\u201d says study corresponding author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/kiersten-strombotne\/\">Kiersten Strombotne<\/a>, assistant professor of health law, policy &amp; management, and an investigator at the VA Boston Healthcare\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peprec.research.va.gov\/\">Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center<\/a> (PEPReC). \u201cThere are of course many individual-level and socio-economic predictors of suicide, but what factors can be easily changed by policymakers within a system of care? Our results suggest that increasing staffing is a clear, effective option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new findings fill gaps in previous studies on mental health staffing and health outcomes, which have used incomplete measures of staffing and have not accounted for multiple factors that may influence outcomes. This study is the first comprehensive measurement of provider staffing levels that uses a quasi-experimental method to explore effects on SREs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the study, Strombotne and colleagues analyzed health and administrative data from 125 VHA facilities, the US Department of Defense, and Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid, providing information on more than 100,000 veterans who had recently completed active service between 2014-2018. They controlled for individual, facility, and county-level characteristics that may have influenced patient outcomes\u2014such as veterans\u2019 year of separation from service, previous use of mental health services, insurance coverage, income, VHA facility size, and average veteran health status per facility\u2014as well as several other factors that may have biased the results or indicated a reverse causal effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SREs among veterans included suicidal self-directed violence, suicide attempts, suicide, and self-directed violence with undetermined intent. The staff positions that the study examined included social workers, psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results showed that, from 2014-2018, the probability of an SRE per pay period was 0.05 percent, and a one percent increase in mental health staffing reduced SREs by 1.6 percentage points.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings also indicated that this effect was most concentrated in VHA facilities with the lowest staffing levels, with the effect diminishing among facilities as staffing levels increased.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s worth noting that the VHA is relatively well-staffed with mental health providers already. Other systems and areas with less staff might see even bigger payoffs,\u201d says study lead author <a href=\"https:\/\/yevgeniyfeyman.com\/\">Yevgeniy Feyman<\/a>, a PhD student studying health services research at SPH and a data analyst at the VHA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This study lends important implications for the VHA, other US health facilities, and for policymaking, the researchers say. Increasing mental health providers within other health systems facing similar staffing limitations would likely improve patients\u2019 health outcomes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The major implication here is that retaining and increasing mental health staffing will have substantial benefits for veterans, especially in the most capacity-constrained facilities,&#8221; Strombotne says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Department of HLPM at SPH, the study was co-authored by Stuart Figueroa, senior policy analyst; doctoral student Yingzhe Yuan; Steven Pizer, professor; and Paul Shafer, assistant professor. Additional co-authors include Megan Price, senior data analyst at PEPReC; Aigerim Kabdiyeva, director of data analytics at PEPReC; Jonathan Nebeker of Veterans Affairs and The University of Utah School of Medicine; and Merry Ward of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Suicide rates in the United States have surged over the past two decades, but the number of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers who can provide mental health care is getting smaller and smaller, leaving the majority of US counties unable to meet this need in their communities. Now, a new study led by School [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":217728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"veteran health","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[3649,3891,1871,3887,2191,2173,1619],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3531,3535,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[3151,3286,2557],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/217634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217634"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/217634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217731,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/217634\/revisions\/217731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=217634"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=217634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}