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Early Alert

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Early Alert conducts weekly individual check-ins via confidential text messaging, and connects Veterans to local and national support resources in VA and in the community, up to and including live counseling. Individual responses are de-identified and aggregated to create a population wellness dashboard to support VA monitoring, evaluation, and research regarding wellness policies and programming.

This innovation is emerging and worth watching as it is being assessed in early implementations. See more emerging innovations.

Origin:

January 2018, New Haven, CT

Adoptions:

1 successful, 1 in-progress

Awards and Recognition:

Mission Daybreak Grand challenge finalist

Partners:

Academic Affiliations, Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL), Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP)

Tags:

Access to Care Continuity of Care Mental Health Suicide Prevention

Overview

Problem

Veterans often delay seeking support, resulting in increased rates of crisis and suicide. Frequent individual check-ins to identify emerging distress would be ideal, but are impossible to conduct at scale due to VA staffing constraints.

Solution

Early Alert conducts weekly individual check-ins via confidential text messaging, and connects Veterans to local and national support resources in VA and in the community, up to and including live counseling. Individual responses are de-identified and aggregated to create a population wellness dashboard to support VA monitoring, evaluation, and research rega ... See more

Results

Early Alert is minimally intrusive and highly engaging, with weekly response rates of over 50% in pilot tests with Veteran samples. Veterans receive need-based referrals to support resources, including live counseling, leading to earlier start-of-care. De-identified aggregate data provides VA staff with a population level wellness dashboard to support VA mon ... See more

Diffusion tracker

Does not include Clinical Resource Hubs (CRH)

Statuses

PA: Pittsburgh VA Medical Center-University Drive (Pittsburgh)

MI: Oscar G. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facility (Iron Mountain)

There are no unsuccessful adoptions for this innovation.

Contact

Comment

Comments and replies are disabled for retired innovations and non-VA users.

About

Original team

Eran Magen, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Search tags

Access to Care Continuity of Care Mental Health Suicide Prevention