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Brief Report
Published Date: 21 February 2025

Behavioral Health Care Use After Initiation of Emergency Dispatches During Veterans Crisis Line Contacts

Peter C. Britton, Ph.D. peter.britton@va.gov, Kipling M. Bohnert, Ph.D., Lauren M. Denneson, Ph.D., Dara Ganoczy, M.P.H., and Mark A. Ilgen, Ph.D.Authors Info & Affiliations
Publication: Psychiatric Services
In Advance
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20240352
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Abstract

Objective:

The authors estimated associations between emergency dispatches initiated by Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) responders and use of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) behavioral health care in the following month.

Methods:

The sample included 217,541 veterans with VCL contacts between 2017 and 2019 who could be linked with medical records. Models were weighted by a propensity score and stratified by VA behavioral health care use in the year preceding contact.

Results:

Of veterans with emergency dispatches, 85.9% (weighted) with and 62.2% without prior use of VA behavioral health care accessed care in the month after dispatch. Dispatch receipt was associated with higher odds of psychiatric hospitalization for veterans with and those without prior VA behavioral health care use and of in-person outpatient behavioral health care use for veterans with prior use.

Conclusions:

Efforts to link dispatch recipients who had not previously used VA behavioral health care to VA care are needed.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
In Advance

History

Received: 26 July 2024
Revision received: 1 November 2024
Accepted: 15 November 2024
Published online: 21 February 2025

Keywords

  1. Veterans Crisis Line
  2. emergency dispatch
  3. treatment engagement
  4. suicide prevention
  5. crisis intervention
  6. suicide and self-destructive behavior

Authors

Details

Peter C. Britton, Ph.D. peter.britton@va.gov
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System, Canandaigua, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York (Britton); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing (Bohnert); Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor (Bohnert, Ganoczy, Ilgen); Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, and Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland (Denneson); Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor (Ilgen).
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Kipling M. Bohnert, Ph.D.
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System, Canandaigua, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York (Britton); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing (Bohnert); Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor (Bohnert, Ganoczy, Ilgen); Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, and Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland (Denneson); Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor (Ilgen).
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Lauren M. Denneson, Ph.D.
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System, Canandaigua, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York (Britton); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing (Bohnert); Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor (Bohnert, Ganoczy, Ilgen); Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, and Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland (Denneson); Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor (Ilgen).
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Dara Ganoczy, M.P.H.
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System, Canandaigua, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York (Britton); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing (Bohnert); Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor (Bohnert, Ganoczy, Ilgen); Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, and Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland (Denneson); Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor (Ilgen).
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Mark A. Ilgen, Ph.D.
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 2 Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Finger Lakes Healthcare System, Canandaigua, New York, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, New York (Britton); Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing (Bohnert); Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor (Bohnert, Ganoczy, Ilgen); Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, and Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Portland (Denneson); Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor (Ilgen).
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Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. Britton (peter.britton@va.gov).

Competing Interests

The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Funding Information

This work was supported by VA Health Services Research and Development award I01HX003236.The VA was not involved in the study design, the analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Before the manuscript was submitted, it was reviewed by representatives of the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) and the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention to ensure that it correctly represents the VCL and VA structures and policies. This review did not affect the analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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