FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study
BackgroundVeterans with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) face barriers to accessing in-person evidence-based interventions that improve illness management. Mobile health (mHealth) has been demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, effective, and engaging among individuals with...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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JMIR Publications
2022-01-01
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| Series: | JMIR Mental Health |
| Online Access: | https://mental.jmir.org/2022/1/e26049 |
| _version_ | 1797735414996402176 |
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| author | Benjamin Buck Janelle Nguyen Shelan Porter Dror Ben-Zeev Greg M Reger |
| author_facet | Benjamin Buck Janelle Nguyen Shelan Porter Dror Ben-Zeev Greg M Reger |
| author_sort | Benjamin Buck |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
BackgroundVeterans with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) face barriers to accessing in-person evidence-based interventions that improve illness management. Mobile health (mHealth) has been demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, effective, and engaging among individuals with SMIs in community mental health settings. mHealth for SMIs has not been tested within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
ObjectiveThis study examines the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of an mHealth intervention for SMI in the context of VA outpatient care.
MethodsA total of 17 veterans with SMIs were enrolled in a 1-month pilot trial of FOCUS, a smartphone-based self-management intervention for SMI. At baseline and posttest, they completed measures examining symptoms and functional recovery. The participants provided qualitative feedback related to the usability and acceptability of the intervention.
ResultsVeterans completed on an average of 85.0 (SD 96.1) interactions with FOCUS over the 1-month intervention period. They reported high satisfaction, usability, and acceptability, with nearly all participants (16/17, 94%) reporting that they would recommend the intervention to a fellow veteran. Clinicians consistently reported finding mHealth-related updates useful for informing their care. Qualitative feedback indicated that veterans thought mHealth complemented their existing VA services well and described potential opportunities to adapt FOCUS to specific subpopulations (eg, combat veterans) as well as specific delivery modalities (eg, groups). In the 1-month period, the participants experienced small improvements in self-assessed recovery, auditory hallucinations, and quality of life.
ConclusionsThe FOCUS mHealth intervention is feasible, acceptable, and usable among veterans. Future work should develop and examine VA-specific implementation approaches of FOCUS for this population. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:57:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-aa8c0d33aded468a94d8717aeb186fe6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2368-7959 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:57:47Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | JMIR Mental Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-aa8c0d33aded468a94d8717aeb186fe62023-08-28T20:27:59ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Mental Health2368-79592022-01-0191e2604910.2196/26049FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability StudyBenjamin Buckhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2841-0493Janelle Nguyenhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3874-3064Shelan Porterhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5696-814XDror Ben-Zeevhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6597-2407Greg M Regerhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6716-362X BackgroundVeterans with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) face barriers to accessing in-person evidence-based interventions that improve illness management. Mobile health (mHealth) has been demonstrated to be feasible, acceptable, effective, and engaging among individuals with SMIs in community mental health settings. mHealth for SMIs has not been tested within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). ObjectiveThis study examines the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of an mHealth intervention for SMI in the context of VA outpatient care. MethodsA total of 17 veterans with SMIs were enrolled in a 1-month pilot trial of FOCUS, a smartphone-based self-management intervention for SMI. At baseline and posttest, they completed measures examining symptoms and functional recovery. The participants provided qualitative feedback related to the usability and acceptability of the intervention. ResultsVeterans completed on an average of 85.0 (SD 96.1) interactions with FOCUS over the 1-month intervention period. They reported high satisfaction, usability, and acceptability, with nearly all participants (16/17, 94%) reporting that they would recommend the intervention to a fellow veteran. Clinicians consistently reported finding mHealth-related updates useful for informing their care. Qualitative feedback indicated that veterans thought mHealth complemented their existing VA services well and described potential opportunities to adapt FOCUS to specific subpopulations (eg, combat veterans) as well as specific delivery modalities (eg, groups). In the 1-month period, the participants experienced small improvements in self-assessed recovery, auditory hallucinations, and quality of life. ConclusionsThe FOCUS mHealth intervention is feasible, acceptable, and usable among veterans. Future work should develop and examine VA-specific implementation approaches of FOCUS for this population.https://mental.jmir.org/2022/1/e26049 |
| spellingShingle | Benjamin Buck Janelle Nguyen Shelan Porter Dror Ben-Zeev Greg M Reger FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study JMIR Mental Health |
| title | FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study |
| title_full | FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study |
| title_fullStr | FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study |
| title_short | FOCUS mHealth Intervention for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness in an Outpatient Department of Veterans Affairs Setting: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study |
| title_sort | focus mhealth intervention for veterans with serious mental illness in an outpatient department of veterans affairs setting feasibility acceptability and usability study |
| url | https://mental.jmir.org/2022/1/e26049 |
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