Implementation of a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Mentoring Program to Improve Treatment Services

Three years ago the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) charged the National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) to develop a mentoring program to train directors of specialized PTSD clinical programs in effective management skills. There were three reasons for this. First, the number of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts coming to the VA for PTSD treatment was rapidly increasing. Second, a major augmentation in mental health staffing had brought many new clinicians to the VA who were unfamiliar with war-zone-related PTSD and with the VA system of care at a time of changing administrative requirements. Third, the clinical complexity of these veterans required additional mentoring because their PTSD was often associated with depression, mild traumatic brain injury, substance use, chronic pain, aggressive behavior, and/or insomnia. The resulting PTSD Mentoring Program created a national network of program directors to disseminate and implement best management practices by supporting local experts in their mentoring of other VA PTSD program directors. This article describes the implementation of the PTSD Mentoring Program and examines methods of how other programs can successfully use and adapt the mentoring model. A description of what is working and where obstacles still exist for the program is provided. Our experience with the program supports the use of peer mentoring as a method to offer educational training on trauma in different settings and using different modalities.