Violence and Stress Assessment (ViStA) Project to Improve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Management in Primary Care

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common problem seen in primary care but the identification and management of PTSD is not routine and would benefit from new approaches. Efforts must overcome patient-, clinician-, and system-level barriers, such as patients' fear of stigma, clinician's time constraints for dealing with psychological issues, gaps in clinician treatment knowledge, and difficulty arranging for referrals to mental health specialists.

Unlike mood disorders such as depression, little is known about improving care for PTSD in primary care settings. However, previous experience for treating depression, as well as existing guidelines for addressing PTSD in primary care, provide evidence that effective interventions exist and that multi-faceted interventions are more effective than a single-component approaches.

In this project, the RAND Corporation, Clinical Directors Network Inc., Georgetown University Department of Psychiatry, and University of Washington will implement and evaluate a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a PTSD Care Management (PCM) intervention to detect, treat, and improve PTSD treatment processes and health outcomes in patients seeking primary care from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Northeastern USA.

The three specific aims are to:

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the PCM intervention compared to a minimally enhanced usual care (MEU) control in reducing PTSD and other mental health symptoms, and improving patients' health-related quality-of-life.
2. Assess the success of the PCM intervention implementation and,
3. Examine the direct costs of the PCM intervention compared to the TAU control treatment.

The PCM intervention was developed using principles of Community-Based Participatory Research (CPBR) methods in FQHCs that provide care to the underserved, and is tailored to the settings and populations we will study. This intervention is multi-faceted and includes components and strategies implemented through a Care Manager (CM) to overcome patient-, clinician-, and system-level barriers.

There are six PCM intervention components: 1) patient education, 2) patient screening and written feedback of screening information to primary care clinicians, 3) clinician education on practice guidelines , 4) structured feedback between primary care and mental health clinicians, 5) continuity of patient care, and 6) a resource guide detailing available community services where the FQHC has established reciprocal referrals. All of the intervention components will be implemented through the CM, except for the clinician education component, which will combine onsite and online continuing medical education (CME)-accredited sessions. The MEU condition will consist of only the clinician education and patient screening without written feedback.

Patients will be interviewed during a pre-screening stage to determine PTSD status. A total of 400 of the patients who screen positive will be randomly assigned to the PCM intervention or TAU.

Data will be collected from several sources. First, patients will be assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 months via interviews using validated instruments. Second, CMs will compile monthly aggregate data on patient management for patients assigned to the PCM program. Third, FQHC staff will be asked for their feedback about their experiences with implementing the program at the end of the study. The study team will use these data to estimate the direct costs of implementing the PCM program.