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Women say access to VA mental health care ‘very good’ in survey

Women veterans report their experiences with access to mental health care were very good, according to data from the WOMAN Survey.

The Women’s Overall Mental Health Assessment of Needs (WOMAN) Survey was completed by telephone, encompassing 145 items to determine women veterans’ mental health symptoms and conditions.

For this study, researchers included data from 6,287 women veterans using VA primary care services. Information regarding perceived need for mental health care, mental health utilization, and gender-related mental health care experiences was analyzed for the study.

Data indicate that half of the women reported on their perceived mental health need, and 84.3% of those patients received care.

“Access to mental health care was substantially higher than is observed in studies of the general U.S. population, where approximately 20% to 30% of individuals report a perceived need for mental health care in the past year, and only 50% to 60% of individuals with perceived need receive mental health care services,” the researchers wrote.

The women also reported that the most common gender-related access issue was lack of access to designated women’s mental health treatment settings.

The researchers suggest that targeted frameworks which define access to care for this patient population may have an important role in patient-centered health care.– by Samantha Costa

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.