Ready to serve: community-based provider capacity to deliver culturally competent, quality mental health care to veterans and their families

Ensuring that military veterans and their families have access to high-quality mental health care is a national priority. Over the past several years, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have increased the number of mental health professionals working within their facilities and have rolled out training and quality improvement initiatives designed to promote the use of evidence-based treatments. Despite these important efforts, research continues to demonstrate that many veterans prefer to seek services outside the Department of Defense and/or the Department of Veterans Affairs. Thus, providers working in the civilian sector are an increasingly important part of the overall workforce addressing veterans' mental health needs. To better understand a key aspect of our nation's ability to provide veterans and their families with access to high-quality mental health care, RAND conducted a survey of civilian mental health providers to gather information about their competency with military and veteran culture and their training and experience treating posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. This report provides the results of that survey. The findings and recommendations from this study should be relevant to individuals, organizations, and policy officials concerned about the capacity of the civilian health care sector to deliver culturally competent, high-quality services to veterans and their families