jwowk
commented
3 years ago 6/24/21 - Shane referred Aimee Johnson to speak with Dr Cary West on how they could combine efforts on their pilot.
We work for the VACO Suicide Prevention Program within the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (under Dr.’s Matt Miller & Lisa Kearney).
I met with some of your team members about a year ago to inquire about the possibility of using VEText to outreach prior VHA Veterans who have dropped out of care but are showing as having increased suicide risk per our predictive modeling known as REACH-VET. I believe at the time there was a potential use-case under Primary Care that would allow us to text Veterans and provide them with a phone number they could call to schedule an appointment.
My colleagues are helping me to reach back to you and find out- is there a cost to a potential series of monthly text messages to Veterans, what is the cost, and what would we need to do paperwork wise or otherwise to try and move forward in this outreach. Then, we can summarize for our leadership to decide if we can move out on this during this FY or next.
Aimee C. Johnson, LCSW Program Analyst, VHA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Office: 503-220-8262 ext. 58540 Mobile: 971-998-3543 Email: Aimee.Johnson@va.gov U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
kjduensing
ken-non
The National Suicide Prevention Office ask that facilities provide a monthly mailing to Veterans at high risk for suicide. Text messaging could be viewed an expansion of the national office requirements. Augusta VAMC was seeking approval to pilot at the facility level.
The requested message was:
_We just wanted to let you know that you matter.
If you are currently experiencing a crisis, please text the Veterans Crisis Line at 838255._
OVAC approved the use case and form is attached.
The initial message campaign was sent on 6/4/21. Augusta VAMC will reach out if/when additional messages will be sent. https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/88977956-fee8-41ca-8e27-9f0ee9134148/download