Measurement-Based Care in Veterans Health Administration Mental Health Residential Treatment

In 2016, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched the Measurement-Based Care (MBC) in Mental Health Initiative to support the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) across mental health services to increase veteran engagement and promote collaborative treatment planning. The present study reported on the administrations of PROMs across all residential stays within the VHA's Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019 (N = 29,111). We subsequently explored a subsample of veterans attending substance use residential treatment during the same period who completed the Brief Addiction Monitor-Revised (BAM-R; Cacciola et al., 2013) at admission and discharge (n = 2,886) to determine the feasibility of using MBC data for program evaluation. The rate of residential stays with at least one PROM was 84.49%. We also identified moderate to large treatment effects on the BAM-R from admission to discharge (Robust Cohen's d = .76-1.60). There is frequent use of PROMs in VHA mental health residential treatment programs with exploratory analyses demonstrating significant improvements for veterans in substance use disorder residential treatment. Considerations for the appropriate use of PROMs in the context of MBC are discussed.