Treating Veterans and Military Families: Evidence Based Practices and Training Needs Among Community Clinicians

Abstract: Little is known about the capacity of community providers to provide military informed evidence based services for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a regional, web-based survey of 352 community mental health care providers that sought to identify clinical practices, training needs, and predictors of evidence based treatment (EBT) use for PTSD. Overall, 49 % of providers indicated they seldom or never use a validated PTSD screening instrument. Familiarity with EBTs, specifically prolonged exposure (PE; v2 (4) = 14.68, p\.01) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT; v2 (4) = 4.55, p\.05), differed by provider type. Of providers who received training in PE or CPT (N = 121), 75 % reported using treatment in their practice, which was associated with having received clinical supervision (v2 (1) = 20.16, p\.001). Widely disseminated trainings in empirically supported PTSD assessment and treatment, and implementation of case supervision in community settings are needed.