Enhancing Veteran-Clinical Collaboration in VA PRRCs

Over 60% of Veterans with serious mental illness have a service-connected disability that impairs their ability to work, go to school, and/or have successful personal lives. Although traditional treatments tend to focus on symptom remission, Veterans prioritize a range of treatment goals, including personal empowerment and gaining personally meaningful skills. Increasing Veteran-clinician collaboration can help effectively align care with each Veteran's goals and support an empowering therapeutic experience. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a group-based intervention intended to increase Veterans' comfort, confidence, knowledge, and skills to collaborate with their treatment teams. Findings from this study will contribute important knowledge about this intervention's effectiveness and how to enhance its effectiveness, especially for Veterans from minoritized groups. If the decision-making intervention is effective, it would help Veterans with serious mental illness, and might also help Veterans with other chronic health conditions, like PTSD and chronic pain.