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Behavioral Health Care Delivery Following the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Utilization, Telehealth, and Quality of Care for Service Members with PTSD, Depression, or Substance Use Disorder
Mar 20, 2023
Geographic Availability of Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Veterans
Testimony presented before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on June 14, 2023.
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Transcript
Jonathan H. Cantor, Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
In 2020, around 12% of veterans 18 years or older had a substance use disorder, and approximately 1.1 million veterans suffer from both a substance use disorder and mental illness.
A key determinant for whether an individual receives substance use disorder treatment is how far they have to travel for care. To date, there have been very few studies that have examined distance the substance use disorder treatment as a barrier to care for a national sample of veterans.
In 2019, the Wounded Warrior Project partnered with RAND researchers to understand geographic accessibility of co-occurring substance use disorder and mental health treatment. Our calculations indicated that, on average, Wounded Warrior Project alumni were around a ten-minute drive time from the nearest substance use disorder or mental health treatment facility with a co-occurring program. In contrast, for these veterans, the closest VA medical center with a co-occurring program was around a sixty-minute drive time from where the veteran lived.
First, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration's behavioral health treatment locator could include additional information on specific treatment approaches available for veterans.
Second, either the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration or VA should consider conducting regular audit studies among non-VA facilities to get a more accurate understanding of the forms of treatment offered, approximate wait times to the next appointment, and total capacity of facilities for substance use disorder treatment.
I think since the COVID-19 pandemic, there's been this drastic increase in telehealth availability. And there has been some research that's examined the telehealth utilization rates, but I think it's still under review as to whether or not the effect of the quality of care that veterans receive differs between in-patient and telehealth.
