How VA Addresses PTSD through Telehealth, Digital, Virtual Care
Virtual care, along with other forms of remote care, has been a powerful tool for Department of Veterans Affairs as it combats veterans’ post-traumatic stress disorder.
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- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has successfully employed telehealth to conduct treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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VA relies on an evidence-based, three-pronged strategy to address the condition. It involves cognitive behavioral or talk therapy, rapid eye movement therapy, and prolonged exposure therapy.
While VA has an established approach to PTSD treatment, veterans have faced many barriers to accessing care, particularly distance to a facility and the mental and behavioral healthcare workforce shortage.
David Shulkin, MD, the former, ninth secretary for VA, told Healthcare Strategies that these recent successes are merely chapters of a much longer history of VA’s telehealth and digital health advancements.
“VA was one of the early innovators using telehealth. When I got to VA, we were doing hundreds of thousands of visits. That's only dramatically climbed, particularly with the pandemic,” Shulkin said.
Although telehealth has proven key to expanding access to mental and behavioral healthcare, the VA’s strategy around PTSD care also encompasses other digital solutions, such as technologies that help members with PTSD regulate their breathing.
Given the success of these technologies, Shulkin noted that integrating virtual and in-person healthcare as well as improving access to broadband will be important steps to further expand the impact that these tools can have.
“Besides telehealth, there are many other parts of the VA system that surround the care that a provider can give,” Shulkin explained.
“That is one of the reasons why I'm such a strong advocate that the VA needs to exist, that we do not simply say, ‘here, everybody, here's a coupon, you can go out and get care in the private sector’—because that type of comprehensive system is often very rare in the private sector.”
In 2021, the Senate recognized VA’s effective telehealth approach by considering it for codification. A couple of months later, a study conducted by members of the VA’s Office of Connected Care indicated that VA provided remote patient monitoring care for more than 23,500 veterans during the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the VA released those findings, the department announced it would expend $1 billion to expand its remote patient monitoring program.
