Pilot the Use of VA Make the Connection Campaign to Facilitate Help Seeking Among Vulnerable Veterans

Help-Seeking Behavior Clinical Trial

Official title:

Evaluation of the VA's Public Awareness Campaigns

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Withdrawn

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03407443
• Other study ID #: IRB899190
• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: July 2016
• Est. completion date: September 2022

Study information

• Verified date: February 2023
• Source: Canandaigua VA Medical Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This pilot study seeks to determine if exposure to the Make the Connection campaign messages developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is associated with changes in mental-health related outcomes, specifically: (1) psychosocial determinants that drive help seeking behaviors (knowledge, attitudes and intentions); and (2) perceived barriers to seeking care. Participants are randomly assigned to message exposure or control (no exposure) conditions. Data from this project will inform mental health education and outreach efforts targeted towards Veterans experiencing mental health concerns.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Withdrawn
• Enrollment: 0
• Est. completion date: September 2022
• Est. primary completion date: September 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 89 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Veterans of all gender/sex, race/ethnicities that in the past 6 months:

• utilized health services in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA);
• screened positive on the PHQ-2, AUDIT-C or PC-PTSD and/or received a mental health diagnosis as documented in VA medical record
• Fluent in English language
• Capable of understanding goals of study
• Capable of providing verbal consent
• Willing and able to download/use study Android mobile application for duration of study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not a U.S. Veteran who has utilized VA health care in the past 6 months
• Did not screen positive and/or was not diagnosed with mental health disorder
• Determined cognitively impaired and unable to provide verbal consent
• Determined to be in high distress during recruitment screening
• Currently institutionalized (i.e., hospitalized; incarcerated, etc.)
• Unwilling and/or unable to download and use use the study app

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Help-Seeking Behavior
• Mental Health Issue (E.G., Depression, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse)
• Personality Disorders
• Substance-Related Disorders

Intervention

Other:
• Exposure to Make the Connection messages
Participants are exposed to Make the Connection messages (each approximately 3 minutes in length) weekly for over a four-month study period through the study mobile application.
• Active Control Group
Participants are exposed to VA news clips/segments (each approximately 3 minutes in length) weekly for over a four-month study period through the study mobile application.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Canandaigua VA Medical Center

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	change in social support	self-report survey using the multidimensional scale of perceived social support (Zimmet et al. 1990). This is a 12-item scale of perceived social support from family and friends. Each item is scored 1-7 on a likert scale (1=very strongly disagree; 7=very strongly agree) and summed with a possible range of 7 to 84. Higher scores indicate higher awareness/belief of social support.	change from baseline behavior at 16 weeks
Primary	change in help seeking behavior	self-report treatment engagement in VA or non-VA services	change from baseline behavior at 16 weeks
Secondary	Attitudes towards help seeking	self-reported treatment beliefs and likelihood for help seeking	assessed up to 16 weeks
Secondary	Barriers to care	The 6-item stigma Scale developed by Britt et al. (2000; 2008) to assess stigma of accessing treatment for psychological problems among military personnel is used w/a 5 point likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Logistical barriers to care are also assessed using the 5-item Barriers to Care scale (Hoge et al. 2004) to assess barriers to accessing psychological treatment w/ a 5 point likert scale (1=strongly disagree; 5= strongly agree). Higher values represent a worse outcome (e.g., higher endorsement of stigma).	assessed up to 16 weeks