Carrie M Farmer

The RAND Program Manager s Guide is a tool to help assess program performance, consider options for improvement, implement solutions, then assess how well the changes worked, with the intention of helping those responsible for managing or implementing programs. Specifically, the tool is intended to provide practical guidance in program improvement and continuous quality improvement for all programs."

The RAND Program Classification Tool is an instrument containing questions and response options across eight key domains that allows for the consistent description of programs in the same content area. Such data can help program portfolio managers compare programs, avoid duplication, and target technical assistance. Developed for psychological health and traumatic brain injury programs, the tool has broader applicability to other content areas.

This report describes the RAND Online Measure Repository, a tool that contains descriptions of 171 measures of psychological health and traumatic brain injury. Detailed information is provided for each measure in an online searchable database, including measure domains, uses, psychometrics, and costs. This report describes development processes and contains summary information for each measure.

This report describes the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) effects on nonelderly veterans' insurance coverage and demand for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care and assesses the coverage and VA utilization changes that could result from repealing the ACA.

This report provides an overview of the psychological health workforce at military treatment facilities (MTFs), examines the extent to which care is consistent with clinical practice guidelines, and identifies facilitators and barriers to providing this care. This report offers a comprehensive assessment of providers' perspectives on their capacity to deliver care for PTSD and depression. Strategies to improve care in MTFs are described.

There are numerous resources available to Massachusetts veterans and service members, but there are still pockets of unmet need in the areas of education, employment, health care, housing, financial, and legal services--particularly for newer veterans and National Guard/reserve members. A better understanding of these needs can inform investments in initiatives that target these populations and guide efforts to remedy barriers to access.

To inform improvements to the quality of care delivered by the military health system for posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, researchers developed a framework and identified, developed, and described a candidate set of measures for monitoring, assessing, and improving the quality of care. This document describes their research approach and the measure sets that they identified.

The U.S. Department of Defense established the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) to provide specialized services for troops suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Through interviews with NICoE staff, home station providers, service members treated at the NICoE, and their families, as well as surveys and site visits, RAND evaluated interactions between the NICoE and providers referring patients and implementing treatment plans.

Researchers conducted an outcome evaluation of the Marine Corps Operational Stress Control and Readiness (OSCAR) program, which trains officers and noncommissioned officers to recognize signs of stress and intervene early. Although Marines in OSCAR-trained battalions were more likely than those in non OSCAR-trained battalions to report having sought help for stress, the researchers found no evidence that OSCAR affected key mental health outcomes."

This report presents results of an implementation evaluation of a clinician training program to improve care for Navy personnel with co-occurring disorders. Clinicians saw a need for such training and viewed it positively. Results also suggest that careful planning and targeting training towards programs best suited to treating co-occurring disorders would improve training effectiveness and likely translate into higher-quality care.

Private contractors have been deployed extensively around the globe for the past decade and may be exposed to many of the stressors that are known to have physical and mental health implications for military personnel. Results from a RAND survey offer preliminary findings about the mental and physical health of contractors, their deployment experiences, and their access to and use of health care resources