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Identify, prevent Veteran suicide
Did you know free training is available to help you identify the most common lethal means of suicide among Veterans and how to get help for Veterans in crisis? LaPuz shares how you can access the training, provided by VHA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. He also shares information on the “Don’t Wait. Reach Out” awareness campaign.
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New! Free care for Veterans in suicidal crisis under COMPACT Act
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Opioid safety training mandatory for all community providers
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New community care medical policies available
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Greater access to colorectal cancer screening at VA
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Veterans and certain individuals in acute suicidal crisis can now go to a VA or community health care facility to receive free emergency health care – including ambulance transportation and related pharmacy costs – and inpatient or crisis residential care for up to 30 days, and outpatient care for up to 90 days, including social work.
Eligible individuals meet any one of these criteria:
- Veterans who were discharged from the military, including reservists, under a condition that is other than dishonorable.
- Veterans who served more than 24 months of active service or more than 100 days under a combat exclusion or in support of a contingency operation either directly or by operating an unmanned aerial vehicle from another location.
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Former members of the armed forces who were the victim of a physical assault of a sexual nature, a battery of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment while serving in the armed forces are also eligible.
The individual must also be determined to be in acute suicidal crisis by a health care provider or first responder to be clinically eligible for the VA benefits.
The benefit became effective January 17, 2023, as part of the Veterans Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care and Treatment (COMPACT) Act of 2020. Please share this information with your colleagues and staff.
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Community providers, regardless of prescribing status, are required under the VA MISSION Act to complete the Community Care Provider–Opioid Safety Initiative training course and certify completion.
If you haven’t already, please create an account in VHA TRAIN linked to your designated National Provider Identifier (NPI) to complete the training. Course completion by NPI is monitored.
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Community care medical policies are now available that should make your job easier. The policies describe standard VA health care benefits for services and procedures you may recommend for a Veteran. They should help reduce your administrative burden by streamlining the process when providing care to Veterans. Please reference the policies as a guide to determining if a Veteran meets VA clinical criteria.
Currently, community care medical policies are available for obstructive sleep apnea and tumor treating fields therapy. VA will be publishing additional policies in the future.
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Some good news: Lynch syndrome testing to identify colorectal cancer risk will soon be more widely available at VA. This test helps identify a patient’s genetic predisposition for colorectal cancer and helps family members understand if they may be at risk.
Learn how the National Oncology Program is expanding Lynch Syndrome testing at VA and share this information with your colleagues and patients.
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E D U C A T I O N & T R A I N I N G
This course discusses evidence-based management of Veterans with chronic pain to improve patient outcomes and decrease incidences of complications related to opioid prescribing. (Note: Accreditation not offered for this course.)
Location: VHA TRAIN
ID#: 1086479
Time: One (1) hour
Skills for Psychological Recovery
This course covers skills for psychological recovery (SPR), a skills-building intervention for post-disaster environments that uses components of cognitive behavioral treatments common across many diagnoses. You will learn an approach that can increase resilience in Veterans and their response abilities to mass casualty and disaster situations.
Location: VHA TRAIN
Access Links: Non-VA employees click here. VA employees click here.
Credit/hours: 4.5
Accreditations: ANCC, APA, ASWB, NYSED SW
Trainings available through Optum and TriWest
Numerous live and on-demand webinars and trainings are offered by Optum and TriWest to fit your schedule. Check them out!
Questions? If you require assistance, please contact the VHA TRAIN Help Desk by email at vhatrain@va.gov.
How to obtain your credit completion certificate:
Once you complete a credited training, you can obtain your credential certificate(s) in four easy steps:
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Log in to VHA Train - https://vha.train.org/vha/login
- Go to “Your Learning”
- Go to “Your Certificates”
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Download your certificate
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W E B I N A R S & L E C T U R E S
Coming in April!
The April webinar is Clues to understanding Long COVID pathophysiology: Findings from the UCSF Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus (LIINC) Study, presented by Michael Peluso, M.D., assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine. LIINC is a study of volunteers previously infected with COVID-19 who have recovered from acute infection. You can learn more at this link: Home Page — Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus (liincstudy.org).
The presentation includes a question-and-answer session. Attendees can register at this TMS link to receive credit for the webinar. Select the correct class start date when registering.
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, April 5, 1 p.m. ET | (UTC-06:00)
LINK: https://veteransaffairs.webex.com/veteransaffairs/j.php?MTID=m24f2839758da808686bf15a26ae91a06
Webinar password: A8JeSwwg*85 (28537994 from phones)
To join by phone: 404-397-1596, access code: 276 340 13157
Accreditations: A IPCE, ACCME, ANCC, ACCME-NP, ACPE, APA, NYSED, NYSED-P, NBCC, APTA
About the series
The Long COVID lecture series highlights research on post-acute and long-term outcomes of COVID-19. The series began in summer 2022 within the St. Louis VA Health Care System and was conceived and developed by Uly Labilles, Ph.D, research-health science specialist, Office of Research and Development, and Ziyad A-Aly, MD, research and development service chief.
To be added to the Long COVID Lecture Series distribution list, please email Dr. Uly Labilles.
Tech Into Care
he April lecture is entitled Informed Decision Making for App Selection: Research, Regulation and Real-World Approaches. The focus will be the challenges, needs, and solutions to selecting safe and evidence-based mental health apps like PTSD Coach, while avoiding risky or potentially harmful apps. Different theories, approaches, and implementations to app evaluation will be discussed, with examples focusing on mindapps.org. The presenter is John Torous, MD, Master of Biomedical Informatics (MBI). Director, Division of Digital Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
DATE / TIME: April 12, 2023, Noon – 1 p.m. ET
For CE credits:
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Register via the TMS or TRAIN link on the website
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Or email MobileMentalHealth@va.gov before the presentation date to receive emails with registration links when available (for this and future events)
About the series
The Tech into Care CE Lecture Series features a different speaker and technology-related topic each month. Lectures are on the second Wednesday of the month, Noon – 1 p.m. ET. The live webinars are open to all VA and non-VA health care staff, researchers, and anyone interested in the use of technology (e.g., mobile apps, online interventions, and telehealth) to support treatment for Veterans with PTSD and related concerns (e.g., anger, substance use, and insomnia). Those who pre-register and participate in the live lectures can earn one hour of free continuing education credit. CE/CMEs available: ACCME, ACCME-NP, ANCC, APA, ASWB, NBCC, NYSED.
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V E T E R A N S P O T L I G H T |
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 Medal of Honor recipient,
World War I hero
David Bennes Barkley enlisted in the Texas National Guard in April 1917, shortly after the U.S. entered World War I. He volunteered for a reconnaissance mission which was successful, but Barkley did not survive.
He was the only Hispanic male to earn the Medal of Honor in World War I and has been honored and commemorated by many monuments and buildings.
You can learn more about his heroic story here.
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 Army Veteran, VA employee, artist
Army Veteran Christina Deloch relies on art as therapy for her mind and body. Christina served in the Army for nearly 10 years and is now a supervisory Veteran Service Representative at the Little Rock Regional office, overseeing 17 staff.
To help manage her high blood pressure and depression, and the demands of her daily responsibilities she turns to her art to relieve stress and focus on her work-life balance.
Learn more about Christina’s story here.
We honor their service.
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I N O T H E R N E W S
Buprenorphine, rather than a full agonist opioid, should be used for patients taking daily opioids for chronic pain, given its lower risk for overdose or misuse. This is based on new guidelines from the VA and Department of Defense (DoD). |
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COMMUNITY PROVIDERS: Thank you for all you do to support our Veterans.
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