VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System staff are working to reach more Veterans using mobile mental health apps.
VA’s National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) received funding to roll out a project seeking to increase Veterans’ access to mobile apps to improve mental health coping and reduce suicide risk.
One medical center in every VISN (Veterans Integrated Service Network) was selected to implement the project locally. When VA Pittsburgh Chief of Chaplain Service Paul Dordal learned about the project, he was immediately interested.
“They had never had a chaplain volunteer, but I saw it as an opportunity,” he said.
Dordal and VAPHS psychologist Dr. Michael Rosen received specific train-the-trainer instruction to become “mHealth specialists.” In this role, they work to empower and assist others, called mHealth ambassadors, to incorporate the mobile mental health apps into care. Anyone with connection to patients can become an ambassador, from psychologists and nurses to peer specialists and MyHealtheVet coordinators.