Chicago-based Prevail Health has received a 12-month contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help ensure that veterans are given access to mental healthcare services.
The partnership, beginning this month, will help make sure Prevail Health's Vets Prevail program reaches thousands of veterans. The program, developed with technology backed by the National Science Foundation, combines web-based peer support with self-help therapy and offers veterans access to new mental health resources remotely. This platform was part of a pilot program supported by Goldman Sachs Gives, the Robin Hood Foundation, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation for the past two years.
The program will be available for free on the web into 2014, according to the company.
The VA has been producing mobile health apps for iPads and iPhones since for many years now, many of which have had a mental health focus. A year after the VA first started launching apps, they announced a pilot for family caregivers to receive iPads loaded with apps created by the VA to test before they create a special app store for veterans.
While the app store hasn't launched yet, the pilot has -- with 10 different apps. The VA has also added some apps to the Apple App store that aren't being tested in the pilot and partnered with a few mobile health companies to develop apps. We've rounded up a series of apps, all created by the VA within the last few years.
In early 2011, the VA launched an informational app to help veterans learn about PTSD. Now offered as part of the 10 apps included on the VA's pre-loaded iPad, PTSD coach offers a self-assessment tool, information about PTSD, a portal to connect with others and tools that help veterans manage their PTSD. Some PTSD management tools include relaxation skills, positive thinking, anger management and other self-help strategies.
While this app was not created by the VA, it was offered by American Well, in partnership with the VA, as part of an initiative to provide telehealth services to veterans, especially those in remote areas. The three components of this initiative were remote mental health services from Minneapolis VA Health Care System (MHCS)’s Behavioral Health Practice; a remote communication system, created by Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System, for cancer patients and providers at Omaha VA Medical Center; and remote post-operative care services from the Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System.
ER Mobile was also not created by the VA. Instead the VA partnered with DSHI Systems to create a mobile triage system for the emergency room that determines how urgently a patient needs to be seen by a physician. The app takes in a patient's vitals and symptoms to create a list of those that need to be seen first and also improves workflow by showing providers what tests patients in the ER need.
This app helps caregivers reduce stress and manage their responsibilities. Within the app, caregivers can take a self-assessment exam, which helps them measure their stress levels and will show a history of self-assessment tests overtime. To take the test over time, the caregiver can set reminders for every week, month, three months or never. Based on the exam results, the app will recommend either deep breathing exercises, muscle relaxation techniques, visualization tools, social activity planner, inspiring quotes, ideas for taking a break or a support system contact list.
Veterans may want to share their personal health information with people in their lives. To do this, veterans can use Healthy Advocate to identify someone as their health advocate, check to see if the person they have identified has agreed to the role, and delete a health advocate if the y no longer want that person in that role. In many cases, the caregiver is the health advocate.
This app provides the VA with a portal in which to check on veterans' activity levels. Health Assessment also provides veterans with a place to take health and wellness self-assessments. From there, the veteran can submit the assessment to his or her care team so that the care team may be able to provide treatment options faster. Veterans can also save the draft of an assessment to complete at a later date and print a copy of their assessment answers.
The VA included a journal app to empower veterans to take control of their health tracking by analyzing both their health and personal activities. What the veteran publishes in the journal will be visible to his or her care team only if the veteran chooses to share the information. Using the App, Veterans can record their blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, pain, weight, and height over time. Veterans can also add personal attributes and activities such as exercise, diet, and mood.
Notifications and Reminders, another tool that allows veterans communicate with their care teams, offers veterans a system to set up reminders and receive notifications from their care team. The reminders are meant to help them stay organized with their appointments and treatment plans. The app speaks to the veterans' personal mobile calendar and they can opt in so that the care teams can send them push notifications.
When pain arises, the pain coach app is meant to help veterans manage it with organizational tools. The veteran can enter information about the pain they feel, and track their pain overtime. The app also offers a pain self-assessment tool, which are supposed to help the veteran figure out what the next steps are in pain management. Like Care4Caregiver, the veteran can set reminders in this app too that will help the veteran take the self-assessment test at recurring intervals. Pain management teaching tools within the app include obtaining restful sleep, reducing stress, exercise (with physician consent), stretching (with physician consent), deep-breathing, relaxation exercises, activity pacing, distraction, and icing.
This app offers veterans or caregivers a portal in which they can request refills for prescription medications, which they will receive through the VA mail order pharmacy. Rx Refill also lets caregivers and veterans see the drug name, prescription number, directions for taking the drugs, quantity of prescription, quantity remaining, and date of last refill.
Veterans and caregivers can see lab results, medications, allergies, information on past and upcoming appointments, progress notes related to clinic visits, hospital discharge notes, and radiology results. Veterans can customize the data to see self entered information as well as personal health information from their healthcare teams. The app also shows veterans their lab results and graphs progress from the results over time.
PE Coach, which stands for Prolonged Exposure Therapy is meant to be used during psychotherapy sessions. The app has tools that should be worked through by a veteran and his or her psychotherapist to reduce anxiety or fear that was caused by PTSD. The app guides the user through exercises and will record progress in the treatment. PE Coach is based on an Oxford University Press treatment workbook.
This app helps those engaged in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i). Unlike PE Coach, CBT-i Coach could be used on its own, although it is not meant to replace therapy. The app teaches veterans about sleep, how to develop positive sleep routines, and how to improve their sleep environments. It also provides a structured program that teaches strategies proven to improve sleep and help alleviate symptoms of insomnia.
PFA Mobile, which stand for psychological first aid, helps families deal with the stress of being survivors.
"This app provides responders with summaries of PFA fundamentals, PFA interventions matched to specific concerns and needs of survivors, mentor tips for applying PFA in the field, a self-assessment tool for readiness to conduct PFA, and a survivors' needs form for simplified data collection and easy referral." -- Apple App Store
Even after treatment ends, the Stay Quit Coach app helps veterans quit smoking. Stay Quit Coach is based on the smoking treatment manual that offers smoking cessation treatment for veterans with PTSD. The app offers users help in creating a plan that uses personal reasons for quitting as a factor when creating the plan. The app also provides information on quitting smoking and interactive tools that help users cope with urges.
