Faculty in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry contribute to improvements in mental health services for Veterans. Dr. John McCarthy, PhD, MPH, [email protected], is Director of the Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center (SMITREC), a national program evaluation center in the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Mental Health Operations.
SMITREC conducts population monitoring, program evaluation, performance assessment, and comparative effectiveness analyses. Important goals of this work are to address variability in access and quality; evaluate organizational changes, such as the VA’s Primary Care-Mental Health Integration and Serious Mental Illness Re-Engage initiatives; enhance care for older Veterans with mental health conditions; improve prescribing practices; evaluate outcomes; and enhance suicide prevention.
In a July 2015 hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald discussed SMITREC work on predictive modeling as a scientific breakthrough for suicide prevention. SMITREC provides a two-year post-doctoral training program; for application information, please contact Dr. Nicholas Bowersox, PhD, Fellowship Training Director, [email protected].