Health Policy

New VA rule proposes to eliminate many copays for Native American veteran.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has proposed a new rule that would waive medical copayments incurred on or after January 5, 2022, for eligible American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) veterans.

The policy is intended to encourage veterans to seek regular primary care treatment, the VA says. “It’s no mystery to a lot of people that health care is sometimes hard to come by in many Native American communities,” Travis Trueblood, director of the VA Office of Tribal Health, told reporters in January. “So, this effort by VA will enhance getting people into the facilities, helping them feel welcome and getting them to use those benefits that they've earned.”

Copayments for more than 3 visits to community-based urgent care in any calendar year would still be required. Follow-up care provided by a VA-authorized primary care provider would be exempt from copays. Members of federally recognized tribes are already exempt from copays at Indian Health Service clinics.

Eligibility may be based in part on documentation issued by AI/AN tribal governments to show tribal membership. The VA has proposed the documentation requirement “as this recognizes tribal sovereignty and promotes the Nation-to-Nation relationship that exists between the United States and tribal governments.” The requirement, the notice says, is consistent with the preferences of tribal leaders.

The regulation implements a requirement in the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, MD, Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, which prohibited the VA from collecting copayments from AI/AN veterans for hospital care or medical services. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced legislation in 2020 to enact the new policy in January 2022 , which is why the rule is retroactive.

Congress passed the measure as part of a package of veterans’ legislation at the end of 2020, and then-President Donald Trump signed it into law in January 2021. Trueblood said the nature of the federal rulemaking process makes it hard to say exactly when the change will take effect, but that no veteran will be turned away from VA care for not making a copayment, even before the rule is finalized. The VA plans to reimburse eligible veterans who received care in the past year for copayment costs.

“I’m encouraged to see VA answering my call to implement the law and remove burdensome copayments for Native veterans accessing their earned health care,” said Tester in a press release. “The fact is Native veterans have bravely answered the call to duty for generations. And I’ll continue to hold VA accountable in delivering these veterans their long-overdue support.”

New VA rule proposes to eliminate many copays for Native American veteran.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has proposed a new rule that would waive medical copayments incurred on or after January 5, 2022, for eligible American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) veterans.

The policy is intended to encourage veterans to seek regular primary care treatment, the VA says. “It’s no mystery to a lot of people that health care is sometimes hard to come by in many Native American communities,” Travis Trueblood, director of the VA Office of Tribal Health, told reporters in January. “So, this effort by VA will enhance getting people into the facilities, helping them feel welcome and getting them to use those benefits that they've earned.”

Copayments for more than 3 visits to community-based urgent care in any calendar year would still be required. Follow-up care provided by a VA-authorized primary care provider would be exempt from copays. Members of federally recognized tribes are already exempt from copays at Indian Health Service clinics.

Eligibility may be based in part on documentation issued by AI/AN tribal governments to show tribal membership. The VA has proposed the documentation requirement “as this recognizes tribal sovereignty and promotes the Nation-to-Nation relationship that exists between the United States and tribal governments.” The requirement, the notice says, is consistent with the preferences of tribal leaders.

The regulation implements a requirement in the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, MD, Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, which prohibited the VA from collecting copayments from AI/AN veterans for hospital care or medical services. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced legislation in 2020 to enact the new policy in January 2022 , which is why the rule is retroactive.

Congress passed the measure as part of a package of veterans’ legislation at the end of 2020, and then-President Donald Trump signed it into law in January 2021. Trueblood said the nature of the federal rulemaking process makes it hard to say exactly when the change will take effect, but that no veteran will be turned away from VA care for not making a copayment, even before the rule is finalized. The VA plans to reimburse eligible veterans who received care in the past year for copayment costs.

“I’m encouraged to see VA answering my call to implement the law and remove burdensome copayments for Native veterans accessing their earned health care,” said Tester in a press release. “The fact is Native veterans have bravely answered the call to duty for generations. And I’ll continue to hold VA accountable in delivering these veterans their long-overdue support.”

New VA rule proposes to eliminate many copays for Native American veteran.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has proposed a new rule that would waive medical copayments incurred on or after January 5, 2022, for eligible American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) veterans.

The policy is intended to encourage veterans to seek regular primary care treatment, the VA says. “It’s no mystery to a lot of people that health care is sometimes hard to come by in many Native American communities,” Travis Trueblood, director of the VA Office of Tribal Health, told reporters in January. “So, this effort by VA will enhance getting people into the facilities, helping them feel welcome and getting them to use those benefits that they've earned.”

Copayments for more than 3 visits to community-based urgent care in any calendar year would still be required. Follow-up care provided by a VA-authorized primary care provider would be exempt from copays. Members of federally recognized tribes are already exempt from copays at Indian Health Service clinics.

Eligibility may be based in part on documentation issued by AI/AN tribal governments to show tribal membership. The VA has proposed the documentation requirement “as this recognizes tribal sovereignty and promotes the Nation-to-Nation relationship that exists between the United States and tribal governments.” The requirement, the notice says, is consistent with the preferences of tribal leaders.

The regulation implements a requirement in the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, MD, Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020, which prohibited the VA from collecting copayments from AI/AN veterans for hospital care or medical services. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) introduced legislation in 2020 to enact the new policy in January 2022 , which is why the rule is retroactive.

Congress passed the measure as part of a package of veterans’ legislation at the end of 2020, and then-President Donald Trump signed it into law in January 2021. Trueblood said the nature of the federal rulemaking process makes it hard to say exactly when the change will take effect, but that no veteran will be turned away from VA care for not making a copayment, even before the rule is finalized. The VA plans to reimburse eligible veterans who received care in the past year for copayment costs.

“I’m encouraged to see VA answering my call to implement the law and remove burdensome copayments for Native veterans accessing their earned health care,” said Tester in a press release. “The fact is Native veterans have bravely answered the call to duty for generations. And I’ll continue to hold VA accountable in delivering these veterans their long-overdue support.”

Physicians nationwide will be challenged by the “unwinding” of the federal public health emergency declared for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration intends to end by May 11 certain COVID-19 emergency measures used to aid in the response to the pandemic, while many others will remain in place.

A separate declaration covers the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID medicines and tests. That would not be affected by the May 11 deadline, the FDA said. In addition, Congress and state lawmakers have extended some COVID response measures.

The result is a patchwork of emergency COVID-19 measures with different end dates.

The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) are assessing how best to advise their members about the end of the public health emergency.

Several waivers regarding copays and coverage and policies regarding controlled substances will expire, Claire Ernst, director of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association, told this news organization.

The impact of the unwinding “will vary based on some factors, such as what state the practice resides in,” Ms. Ernst said. “Fortunately, Congress provided some predictability for practices by extending many of the telehealth waivers through the end of 2024.”

The AAFP told this news organization that it has joined several other groups in calling for the release of proposed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulations meant to permanently allow prescriptions of buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder via telehealth. The AAFP and other groups want to review these proposals and, if needed, urge the DEA to modify or finalize before there are any disruptions in access to medications for opioid use disorder.
 

Patients’ questions

Clinicians can expect to field patients’ questions about their insurance coverage and what they need to pay, said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“Your doctor’s office, that clinic you typically get care at, that is the face of medicine to you,” Ms. Foster told this news organization. “Many doctors and their staff will be asked, ‘What’s happening with Medicaid?’ ‘What about my Medicare coverage?’ ‘Can I still access care in the same way that I did before?’ ”

Physicians will need to be ready to answers those question, or point patients to where they can get answers, Ms. Foster said.

For example, Medicaid will no longer cover postpartum care for some enrollees after giving birth, said Taylor Platt, health policy manager for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The federal response to the pandemic created “a de facto postpartum coverage extension for Medicaid enrollees,” which will be lost in some states, Ms. Platt told this news organization. However, 28 states and the District of Columbia have taken separate measures to extend postpartum coverage to 1 year.

“This coverage has been critical for postpartum individuals to address health needs like substance use and mental health treatment and chronic conditions,” Ms. Platt said.

States significantly changed Medicaid policy to expand access to care during the pandemic.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, for example, expanded coverage or access to telehealth services in Medicaid during the pandemic, according to a Jan. 31 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). These expansions expire under various deadlines, although most states have made or are planning to make some Medicaid telehealth flexibilities permanent, KFF said.

The KFF report notes that all states and the District of Columbia temporarily waived some aspects of state licensure requirements, so that clinicians with equivalent licenses in other states could practice via telehealth.

In some states, these waivers are still active and are tied to the end of the federal emergency declaration. In others, they expired, with some states allowing for long-term or permanent interstate telemedicine, KFF said. (The Federation of State Medical Boards has a detailed summary of these modifications.)
 

The end of free COVID vaccines, testing for some patients

The AAFP has also raised concerns about continued access to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for uninsured adults. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said in a tweet that this transition, however, wouldn’t happen until a few months after the public health emergency ends.

After those few months, there will be a transition from U.S. government–distributed vaccines and treatments to ones purchased through the regular health care system, the “way we do for every other vaccine and treatment,” Dr. Jha added.

But that raises the same kind of difficult questions that permeate U.S. health care, with a potential to keep COVID active, said Patricia Jackson, RN, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

People who don’t have insurance may lose access to COVID testing and vaccines.

“Will that lead to increases in transmission? Who knows,” Ms. Jackson told this news organization. “We will have to see. There are some health equity issues that potentially arise.”
 

Future FDA actions

Biden’s May 11 deadline applies to emergency provisions made under a Section 319 declaration, which allow the Department of Health and Human Services to respond to crises.

But a separate flexibility, known as a Section 564 declaration, covers the FDA’s EUAs, which can remain in effect even as the other declarations end.

The best-known EUAs for the pandemic were used to bring COVID vaccines and treatments to market. Many of these have since been converted to normal approvals as companies presented more evidence to support the initial emergency approvals. In other cases, EUAs have been withdrawn owing to disappointing research results, changing virus strains, and evolving medical treatments.

The FDA also used many EUAs to cover new uses of ventilators and other hospital equipment and expand these supplies in response to the pandemic, said Mark Howell, AHA’s director of policy and patient safety.

The FDA should examine the EUAs issued during the pandemic to see what greater flexibilities might be used to deal with future serious shortages of critical supplies. International incidents such as the war in Ukraine show how fragile the supply chain can be. The FDA should consider its recent experience with EUAs to address this, Mr. Howell said.

“What do we do coming out of the pandemic? And how do we think about being more proactive in this space to ensure that our supply doesn’t bottleneck, that we continue to make sure that providers have access to supply that’s not only safe and effective, but that they can use?” Mr. Howell told this news organization.

Such planning might also help prepare the country for the next pandemic, which is a near certainty, APIC’s Ms. Jackson said. The nation needs a nimbler response to the next major outbreak of an infectious disease, she said.

“There is going to be a next time,” Ms. Jackson said. “We are going to have another pandemic.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Physicians nationwide will be challenged by the “unwinding” of the federal public health emergency declared for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration intends to end by May 11 certain COVID-19 emergency measures used to aid in the response to the pandemic, while many others will remain in place.

A separate declaration covers the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID medicines and tests. That would not be affected by the May 11 deadline, the FDA said. In addition, Congress and state lawmakers have extended some COVID response measures.

The result is a patchwork of emergency COVID-19 measures with different end dates.

The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) are assessing how best to advise their members about the end of the public health emergency.

Several waivers regarding copays and coverage and policies regarding controlled substances will expire, Claire Ernst, director of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association, told this news organization.

The impact of the unwinding “will vary based on some factors, such as what state the practice resides in,” Ms. Ernst said. “Fortunately, Congress provided some predictability for practices by extending many of the telehealth waivers through the end of 2024.”

The AAFP told this news organization that it has joined several other groups in calling for the release of proposed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulations meant to permanently allow prescriptions of buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder via telehealth. The AAFP and other groups want to review these proposals and, if needed, urge the DEA to modify or finalize before there are any disruptions in access to medications for opioid use disorder.
 

Patients’ questions

Clinicians can expect to field patients’ questions about their insurance coverage and what they need to pay, said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“Your doctor’s office, that clinic you typically get care at, that is the face of medicine to you,” Ms. Foster told this news organization. “Many doctors and their staff will be asked, ‘What’s happening with Medicaid?’ ‘What about my Medicare coverage?’ ‘Can I still access care in the same way that I did before?’ ”

Physicians will need to be ready to answers those question, or point patients to where they can get answers, Ms. Foster said.

For example, Medicaid will no longer cover postpartum care for some enrollees after giving birth, said Taylor Platt, health policy manager for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The federal response to the pandemic created “a de facto postpartum coverage extension for Medicaid enrollees,” which will be lost in some states, Ms. Platt told this news organization. However, 28 states and the District of Columbia have taken separate measures to extend postpartum coverage to 1 year.

“This coverage has been critical for postpartum individuals to address health needs like substance use and mental health treatment and chronic conditions,” Ms. Platt said.

States significantly changed Medicaid policy to expand access to care during the pandemic.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, for example, expanded coverage or access to telehealth services in Medicaid during the pandemic, according to a Jan. 31 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). These expansions expire under various deadlines, although most states have made or are planning to make some Medicaid telehealth flexibilities permanent, KFF said.

The KFF report notes that all states and the District of Columbia temporarily waived some aspects of state licensure requirements, so that clinicians with equivalent licenses in other states could practice via telehealth.

In some states, these waivers are still active and are tied to the end of the federal emergency declaration. In others, they expired, with some states allowing for long-term or permanent interstate telemedicine, KFF said. (The Federation of State Medical Boards has a detailed summary of these modifications.)
 

The end of free COVID vaccines, testing for some patients

The AAFP has also raised concerns about continued access to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for uninsured adults. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said in a tweet that this transition, however, wouldn’t happen until a few months after the public health emergency ends.

After those few months, there will be a transition from U.S. government–distributed vaccines and treatments to ones purchased through the regular health care system, the “way we do for every other vaccine and treatment,” Dr. Jha added.

But that raises the same kind of difficult questions that permeate U.S. health care, with a potential to keep COVID active, said Patricia Jackson, RN, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

People who don’t have insurance may lose access to COVID testing and vaccines.

“Will that lead to increases in transmission? Who knows,” Ms. Jackson told this news organization. “We will have to see. There are some health equity issues that potentially arise.”
 

Future FDA actions

Biden’s May 11 deadline applies to emergency provisions made under a Section 319 declaration, which allow the Department of Health and Human Services to respond to crises.

But a separate flexibility, known as a Section 564 declaration, covers the FDA’s EUAs, which can remain in effect even as the other declarations end.

The best-known EUAs for the pandemic were used to bring COVID vaccines and treatments to market. Many of these have since been converted to normal approvals as companies presented more evidence to support the initial emergency approvals. In other cases, EUAs have been withdrawn owing to disappointing research results, changing virus strains, and evolving medical treatments.

The FDA also used many EUAs to cover new uses of ventilators and other hospital equipment and expand these supplies in response to the pandemic, said Mark Howell, AHA’s director of policy and patient safety.

The FDA should examine the EUAs issued during the pandemic to see what greater flexibilities might be used to deal with future serious shortages of critical supplies. International incidents such as the war in Ukraine show how fragile the supply chain can be. The FDA should consider its recent experience with EUAs to address this, Mr. Howell said.

“What do we do coming out of the pandemic? And how do we think about being more proactive in this space to ensure that our supply doesn’t bottleneck, that we continue to make sure that providers have access to supply that’s not only safe and effective, but that they can use?” Mr. Howell told this news organization.

Such planning might also help prepare the country for the next pandemic, which is a near certainty, APIC’s Ms. Jackson said. The nation needs a nimbler response to the next major outbreak of an infectious disease, she said.

“There is going to be a next time,” Ms. Jackson said. “We are going to have another pandemic.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Physicians nationwide will be challenged by the “unwinding” of the federal public health emergency declared for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration intends to end by May 11 certain COVID-19 emergency measures used to aid in the response to the pandemic, while many others will remain in place.

A separate declaration covers the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for COVID medicines and tests. That would not be affected by the May 11 deadline, the FDA said. In addition, Congress and state lawmakers have extended some COVID response measures.

The result is a patchwork of emergency COVID-19 measures with different end dates.

The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) are assessing how best to advise their members about the end of the public health emergency.

Several waivers regarding copays and coverage and policies regarding controlled substances will expire, Claire Ernst, director of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association, told this news organization.

The impact of the unwinding “will vary based on some factors, such as what state the practice resides in,” Ms. Ernst said. “Fortunately, Congress provided some predictability for practices by extending many of the telehealth waivers through the end of 2024.”

The AAFP told this news organization that it has joined several other groups in calling for the release of proposed Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulations meant to permanently allow prescriptions of buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder via telehealth. The AAFP and other groups want to review these proposals and, if needed, urge the DEA to modify or finalize before there are any disruptions in access to medications for opioid use disorder.
 

Patients’ questions

Clinicians can expect to field patients’ questions about their insurance coverage and what they need to pay, said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“Your doctor’s office, that clinic you typically get care at, that is the face of medicine to you,” Ms. Foster told this news organization. “Many doctors and their staff will be asked, ‘What’s happening with Medicaid?’ ‘What about my Medicare coverage?’ ‘Can I still access care in the same way that I did before?’ ”

Physicians will need to be ready to answers those question, or point patients to where they can get answers, Ms. Foster said.

For example, Medicaid will no longer cover postpartum care for some enrollees after giving birth, said Taylor Platt, health policy manager for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The federal response to the pandemic created “a de facto postpartum coverage extension for Medicaid enrollees,” which will be lost in some states, Ms. Platt told this news organization. However, 28 states and the District of Columbia have taken separate measures to extend postpartum coverage to 1 year.

“This coverage has been critical for postpartum individuals to address health needs like substance use and mental health treatment and chronic conditions,” Ms. Platt said.

States significantly changed Medicaid policy to expand access to care during the pandemic.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, for example, expanded coverage or access to telehealth services in Medicaid during the pandemic, according to a Jan. 31 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). These expansions expire under various deadlines, although most states have made or are planning to make some Medicaid telehealth flexibilities permanent, KFF said.

The KFF report notes that all states and the District of Columbia temporarily waived some aspects of state licensure requirements, so that clinicians with equivalent licenses in other states could practice via telehealth.

In some states, these waivers are still active and are tied to the end of the federal emergency declaration. In others, they expired, with some states allowing for long-term or permanent interstate telemedicine, KFF said. (The Federation of State Medical Boards has a detailed summary of these modifications.)
 

The end of free COVID vaccines, testing for some patients

The AAFP has also raised concerns about continued access to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for uninsured adults. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said in a tweet that this transition, however, wouldn’t happen until a few months after the public health emergency ends.

After those few months, there will be a transition from U.S. government–distributed vaccines and treatments to ones purchased through the regular health care system, the “way we do for every other vaccine and treatment,” Dr. Jha added.

But that raises the same kind of difficult questions that permeate U.S. health care, with a potential to keep COVID active, said Patricia Jackson, RN, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

People who don’t have insurance may lose access to COVID testing and vaccines.

“Will that lead to increases in transmission? Who knows,” Ms. Jackson told this news organization. “We will have to see. There are some health equity issues that potentially arise.”
 

Future FDA actions

Biden’s May 11 deadline applies to emergency provisions made under a Section 319 declaration, which allow the Department of Health and Human Services to respond to crises.

But a separate flexibility, known as a Section 564 declaration, covers the FDA’s EUAs, which can remain in effect even as the other declarations end.

The best-known EUAs for the pandemic were used to bring COVID vaccines and treatments to market. Many of these have since been converted to normal approvals as companies presented more evidence to support the initial emergency approvals. In other cases, EUAs have been withdrawn owing to disappointing research results, changing virus strains, and evolving medical treatments.

The FDA also used many EUAs to cover new uses of ventilators and other hospital equipment and expand these supplies in response to the pandemic, said Mark Howell, AHA’s director of policy and patient safety.

The FDA should examine the EUAs issued during the pandemic to see what greater flexibilities might be used to deal with future serious shortages of critical supplies. International incidents such as the war in Ukraine show how fragile the supply chain can be. The FDA should consider its recent experience with EUAs to address this, Mr. Howell said.

“What do we do coming out of the pandemic? And how do we think about being more proactive in this space to ensure that our supply doesn’t bottleneck, that we continue to make sure that providers have access to supply that’s not only safe and effective, but that they can use?” Mr. Howell told this news organization.

Such planning might also help prepare the country for the next pandemic, which is a near certainty, APIC’s Ms. Jackson said. The nation needs a nimbler response to the next major outbreak of an infectious disease, she said.

“There is going to be a next time,” Ms. Jackson said. “We are going to have another pandemic.”

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

In 2016, when Erin Schanning lost her brother Ethan to an overdose, she wanted to know what could have been done to have helped him. Ethan, who had struggled with opioids since getting a prescription for the drugs after a dental procedure in middle school, had tried dozens of treatments. But at the age of 30, he was gone.

“After my brother died, I started researching and was surprised to learn that there were many evidence-based ways to treat substance use disorder that he hadn’t had access to, even though he had doggedly pursued treatment,” Ms. Schanning told me in an interview. One of those treatments, buprenorphine, is one of the most effective tools that health care providers have to treat opioid use disorder. A partial opioid agonist, it reduces cravings and prevents overdose, decreasing mortality more effectively than almost any medication for any disease. Yet most providers have never prescribed it.

That may be about to change. Thanks largely to advocates such as Ms. Schanning, who founded End Substance Use Disorder after she lost her brother, Congress has finally removed barriers to prescribing buprenorphine. The special license to prescribe the medication, commonly known as the “X-waiver,” was officially eliminated as part of the passage of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act. Immediately, following the passage of the Act, any provider with a DEA license became eligible to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, and limits on the number of patients they could treat were eliminated.

Previously, buprenorphine, which has a better safety profile than almost any other prescription opioid because of its ceiling effect on respiratory depression,nonetheless required providers to obtain a special license to prescribe it, and – prior to an executive order from the Biden administration – 8 to 24 hours of training to do so. This led to a misconception that buprenorphine was dangerous, and created barriers for treatment during the worst overdose crisis in our country’s history. More than 110,00 overdose deaths occurred in 2021, representing a 468% increase in the last 2 decades.

Along with the MAT Act, the Medication Access and Training Expansion Act was passed in the same spending bill, requiring all prescribers who obtain a DEA license to do 8 hours of training on the treatment of substance use disorders. According to the Act, addiction specialty societies will have a role in creating trainings. Medical schools and residencies will also be able to fulfill this requirement with a “comprehensive” curriculum that covers all approved medications for the treatment of substance use disorders.

The DEA has not yet confirmed what training will be accepted, according to the Chief Medical Officer of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Neeraj Gandotra, MD, who spoke to me in an interview. However, it is required to do so by April 5, 2023. Dr. Gandotra also emphasized that state and local laws, as well as insurance requirements, remain in place, and may place other constraints on prescribing. According to the Act, this new rule will be in effect by June 2023.

As an addiction medicine specialist and longtime buprenorphine prescriber, I am excited about these changes but wary of lingering resistance among health care providers. Will providers who have chosen not to get an X-waiver now look for another reason to not treat patients with substance use disorders?

Ms. Schanning remains hopeful. “I’m incredibly optimistic that health care providers are going to learn about buprenorphine and prescribe it to patients, and that patients are going to start asking about this medication,” she told me. “Seven in 10 providers say that they do feel an obligation to treat their patients with [opioid use disorder], but the federal government has made it very difficult to do so.”

Now with the X-waiver gone, providers and patients may be able to push for a long overdue shift in how we treat and conceptualize substance use disorders, she noted.

“Health care providers need to recognize substance use disorder as a medical condition that deserves treatment, and to speak about it like a medical condition,” Ms. Schanning said, by, for instance, moving away from using words such as “abuse” and “clean” and, instead, talking about treatable substance use disorders that can improve with evidence-based care, such as buprenorphine and methadone. “We also need to share stories of success and hope with people,” she added. “Once you’ve seen how someone can be transformed by treatment, it’s really difficult to say that substance use disorder is a character flaw, or their fault.”
 

A patient-centered approach

Over the past decade of practicing medicine, I have experienced this transformation personally. In residency, I believed that people had to be ready for help, to stop using, to change. I failed to recognize that many of those same people were asking me for help, and I wasn’t offering what they needed. The person who had to change was me.

As I moved toward a patient-centered approach, lowering barriers to starting and remaining in treatment, and collaborating with teams that could meet people wherever they might be, addictions became the most rewarding part of my practice.

I have never had more people thank me spontaneously and deeply for the care I provide. Plus, I have never seen a more profound change in the students I work with than when they witness someone with a substance use disorder offered treatment that works.

The X-waiver was not the only barrier to care, and the overdose crisis is not slowing down. But maybe with a new tool widely accessible, more of us will be ready to help.
 

Dr. Poorman is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, assistant professor of medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, and provides primary care and addiction services in Chicago. Her views do not necessarily reflect the views of her employer. She has reported no relevant disclosures, and she serves on the editorial advisory board of Internal Medicine News.

In 2016, when Erin Schanning lost her brother Ethan to an overdose, she wanted to know what could have been done to have helped him. Ethan, who had struggled with opioids since getting a prescription for the drugs after a dental procedure in middle school, had tried dozens of treatments. But at the age of 30, he was gone.

“After my brother died, I started researching and was surprised to learn that there were many evidence-based ways to treat substance use disorder that he hadn’t had access to, even though he had doggedly pursued treatment,” Ms. Schanning told me in an interview. One of those treatments, buprenorphine, is one of the most effective tools that health care providers have to treat opioid use disorder. A partial opioid agonist, it reduces cravings and prevents overdose, decreasing mortality more effectively than almost any medication for any disease. Yet most providers have never prescribed it.

That may be about to change. Thanks largely to advocates such as Ms. Schanning, who founded End Substance Use Disorder after she lost her brother, Congress has finally removed barriers to prescribing buprenorphine. The special license to prescribe the medication, commonly known as the “X-waiver,” was officially eliminated as part of the passage of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act. Immediately, following the passage of the Act, any provider with a DEA license became eligible to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, and limits on the number of patients they could treat were eliminated.

Previously, buprenorphine, which has a better safety profile than almost any other prescription opioid because of its ceiling effect on respiratory depression,nonetheless required providers to obtain a special license to prescribe it, and – prior to an executive order from the Biden administration – 8 to 24 hours of training to do so. This led to a misconception that buprenorphine was dangerous, and created barriers for treatment during the worst overdose crisis in our country’s history. More than 110,00 overdose deaths occurred in 2021, representing a 468% increase in the last 2 decades.

Along with the MAT Act, the Medication Access and Training Expansion Act was passed in the same spending bill, requiring all prescribers who obtain a DEA license to do 8 hours of training on the treatment of substance use disorders. According to the Act, addiction specialty societies will have a role in creating trainings. Medical schools and residencies will also be able to fulfill this requirement with a “comprehensive” curriculum that covers all approved medications for the treatment of substance use disorders.

The DEA has not yet confirmed what training will be accepted, according to the Chief Medical Officer of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Neeraj Gandotra, MD, who spoke to me in an interview. However, it is required to do so by April 5, 2023. Dr. Gandotra also emphasized that state and local laws, as well as insurance requirements, remain in place, and may place other constraints on prescribing. According to the Act, this new rule will be in effect by June 2023.

As an addiction medicine specialist and longtime buprenorphine prescriber, I am excited about these changes but wary of lingering resistance among health care providers. Will providers who have chosen not to get an X-waiver now look for another reason to not treat patients with substance use disorders?

Ms. Schanning remains hopeful. “I’m incredibly optimistic that health care providers are going to learn about buprenorphine and prescribe it to patients, and that patients are going to start asking about this medication,” she told me. “Seven in 10 providers say that they do feel an obligation to treat their patients with [opioid use disorder], but the federal government has made it very difficult to do so.”

Now with the X-waiver gone, providers and patients may be able to push for a long overdue shift in how we treat and conceptualize substance use disorders, she noted.

“Health care providers need to recognize substance use disorder as a medical condition that deserves treatment, and to speak about it like a medical condition,” Ms. Schanning said, by, for instance, moving away from using words such as “abuse” and “clean” and, instead, talking about treatable substance use disorders that can improve with evidence-based care, such as buprenorphine and methadone. “We also need to share stories of success and hope with people,” she added. “Once you’ve seen how someone can be transformed by treatment, it’s really difficult to say that substance use disorder is a character flaw, or their fault.”
 

A patient-centered approach

Over the past decade of practicing medicine, I have experienced this transformation personally. In residency, I believed that people had to be ready for help, to stop using, to change. I failed to recognize that many of those same people were asking me for help, and I wasn’t offering what they needed. The person who had to change was me.

As I moved toward a patient-centered approach, lowering barriers to starting and remaining in treatment, and collaborating with teams that could meet people wherever they might be, addictions became the most rewarding part of my practice.

I have never had more people thank me spontaneously and deeply for the care I provide. Plus, I have never seen a more profound change in the students I work with than when they witness someone with a substance use disorder offered treatment that works.

The X-waiver was not the only barrier to care, and the overdose crisis is not slowing down. But maybe with a new tool widely accessible, more of us will be ready to help.
 

Dr. Poorman is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, assistant professor of medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, and provides primary care and addiction services in Chicago. Her views do not necessarily reflect the views of her employer. She has reported no relevant disclosures, and she serves on the editorial advisory board of Internal Medicine News.

In 2016, when Erin Schanning lost her brother Ethan to an overdose, she wanted to know what could have been done to have helped him. Ethan, who had struggled with opioids since getting a prescription for the drugs after a dental procedure in middle school, had tried dozens of treatments. But at the age of 30, he was gone.

“After my brother died, I started researching and was surprised to learn that there were many evidence-based ways to treat substance use disorder that he hadn’t had access to, even though he had doggedly pursued treatment,” Ms. Schanning told me in an interview. One of those treatments, buprenorphine, is one of the most effective tools that health care providers have to treat opioid use disorder. A partial opioid agonist, it reduces cravings and prevents overdose, decreasing mortality more effectively than almost any medication for any disease. Yet most providers have never prescribed it.

That may be about to change. Thanks largely to advocates such as Ms. Schanning, who founded End Substance Use Disorder after she lost her brother, Congress has finally removed barriers to prescribing buprenorphine. The special license to prescribe the medication, commonly known as the “X-waiver,” was officially eliminated as part of the passage of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act. Immediately, following the passage of the Act, any provider with a DEA license became eligible to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, and limits on the number of patients they could treat were eliminated.

Previously, buprenorphine, which has a better safety profile than almost any other prescription opioid because of its ceiling effect on respiratory depression,nonetheless required providers to obtain a special license to prescribe it, and – prior to an executive order from the Biden administration – 8 to 24 hours of training to do so. This led to a misconception that buprenorphine was dangerous, and created barriers for treatment during the worst overdose crisis in our country’s history. More than 110,00 overdose deaths occurred in 2021, representing a 468% increase in the last 2 decades.

Along with the MAT Act, the Medication Access and Training Expansion Act was passed in the same spending bill, requiring all prescribers who obtain a DEA license to do 8 hours of training on the treatment of substance use disorders. According to the Act, addiction specialty societies will have a role in creating trainings. Medical schools and residencies will also be able to fulfill this requirement with a “comprehensive” curriculum that covers all approved medications for the treatment of substance use disorders.

The DEA has not yet confirmed what training will be accepted, according to the Chief Medical Officer of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Neeraj Gandotra, MD, who spoke to me in an interview. However, it is required to do so by April 5, 2023. Dr. Gandotra also emphasized that state and local laws, as well as insurance requirements, remain in place, and may place other constraints on prescribing. According to the Act, this new rule will be in effect by June 2023.

As an addiction medicine specialist and longtime buprenorphine prescriber, I am excited about these changes but wary of lingering resistance among health care providers. Will providers who have chosen not to get an X-waiver now look for another reason to not treat patients with substance use disorders?

Ms. Schanning remains hopeful. “I’m incredibly optimistic that health care providers are going to learn about buprenorphine and prescribe it to patients, and that patients are going to start asking about this medication,” she told me. “Seven in 10 providers say that they do feel an obligation to treat their patients with [opioid use disorder], but the federal government has made it very difficult to do so.”

Now with the X-waiver gone, providers and patients may be able to push for a long overdue shift in how we treat and conceptualize substance use disorders, she noted.

“Health care providers need to recognize substance use disorder as a medical condition that deserves treatment, and to speak about it like a medical condition,” Ms. Schanning said, by, for instance, moving away from using words such as “abuse” and “clean” and, instead, talking about treatable substance use disorders that can improve with evidence-based care, such as buprenorphine and methadone. “We also need to share stories of success and hope with people,” she added. “Once you’ve seen how someone can be transformed by treatment, it’s really difficult to say that substance use disorder is a character flaw, or their fault.”
 

A patient-centered approach

Over the past decade of practicing medicine, I have experienced this transformation personally. In residency, I believed that people had to be ready for help, to stop using, to change. I failed to recognize that many of those same people were asking me for help, and I wasn’t offering what they needed. The person who had to change was me.

As I moved toward a patient-centered approach, lowering barriers to starting and remaining in treatment, and collaborating with teams that could meet people wherever they might be, addictions became the most rewarding part of my practice.

I have never had more people thank me spontaneously and deeply for the care I provide. Plus, I have never seen a more profound change in the students I work with than when they witness someone with a substance use disorder offered treatment that works.

The X-waiver was not the only barrier to care, and the overdose crisis is not slowing down. But maybe with a new tool widely accessible, more of us will be ready to help.
 

Dr. Poorman is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, assistant professor of medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, and provides primary care and addiction services in Chicago. Her views do not necessarily reflect the views of her employer. She has reported no relevant disclosures, and she serves on the editorial advisory board of Internal Medicine News.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. I’m Dr Sandra Fryhofer. Welcome to Medicine Matters. The topic is highlights from ACIP’s new adult schedule for 2023, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and why this new schedule may be a collector’s item.

It’s a new year, which means a new ACIP adult immunization schedule – a valuable resource collating ACIP’s most up-to-date vaccination recommendations.

Here are this year’s five most important changes:

• COVID vaccines now front and center
• New emphasis on polio vaccination
• Inclusion of some nonvaccine products (such as monoclonal antibody products)
• Pharmacists group has approved the schedule for the first time
• New shared clinical decision-making option for pneumococcal vaccines

The schedule’s organization remains the same. It still has four sections:

• Table 1: vaccinations by age
• Table 2: vaccinations by medical condition and other indications
• The Notes section (alphabetically ordered by vaccine type)
• Appendix listing of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions

But what’s unique this year is that some of the abbreviations have historical implications. The first change is no big surprise in light of what we’ve gone through in the past few years. COVID vaccines are listed first on the cover page by brand name for those authorized and by company name for those still under US emergency use authorization. They’re also listed first on the graphics and in the notes.

COVID and mRNA and protein-based vaccines have now been assigned official abbreviations based on vaccine platform and valency.

• 1vCOV-mRNA: Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech and Spikevax Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
• 2vCOV-mRNA: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines
• 1vCOV-aPS: Novavax COVID-19 vaccine

Also remarkable is the absence of COVID viral vector vaccines on the list. However, the viral vector COVID vaccine (which has been available but is not preferred) does have a CDC website link in the Notes section.

A sad but necessary inclusion was triggered by recent polio cases in New York. Polio was believed to be eradicated, and we thought adults no longer needed to be vaccinated against polio. In the new schedule, the polio vaccine is listed on the cover page but is not included in the tables. Current polio vaccination recommendations are now in the Notes section.

Also of historical significance and something that may set a precedent is the inclusion of nonvaccine products. The value of COVID preexposure prophylaxis with products including monoclonal antibodies (such as Evusheld) for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised is mentioned in the Notes section.

For the first time ever, the schedule has been approved by the American Pharmacists Association, which validates pharmacists as established partners in vaccine administration.
 

Color-code key

One aspect of the schedule that has not changed is the color-code key:

• Yellow: Recommended if the patient meets the age requirement
• Purple: Indicated for those with additional risk factors or another indication
• Blue: Recommended based on shared clinical decision-making
• Orange: Precaution
• Red: Contraindicated or not recommended; the vaccine should not be administered. Overlays on the red more precisely clarify whether a vaccine is really contraindicated or just not recommended. An asterisk on red means vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated.
• Gray: No recommendation or not applicable

Vaccinations by age

Table 1 lists recommended vaccinations by age. There is one major change. COVID vaccines are on the first row of the graphic, with the need for both a primary series and boosters emphasized on the overlay. The notes have hyperlinks to the most up-to-date COVID vaccination recommendations.

Pneumococcal vaccination. Pneumococcal vaccination is routinely recommended starting at age 65. Current recommendations for those not previously vaccinated have not changed since last year. But on Table 1, the bottom half of the row for those 65 or older is now blue (and that’s new). This new color blue means shared clinical decision-making and applies to people who were previously considered fully vaccinated with the now extinct combination of PCV13 and PPSV23. These patients now have the option of getting a dose of PCV20 five years after completing their PCV13-PPSV23 combo series. This option is blue because the decision is up to you and your patient.

Check the notes for more pneumococcal vaccination details. For example, for those partially vaccinated using lower valency vaccines, there’s an option of substituting PCV20 for PPSV23 to broaden and increase durability of protection.

The pneumococcal vaccination recommendation options are complicated. A new pneumococcal vaccination app can help.

Hepatitis B. For adults under age 60, the color code for the hepatitis B vaccine is yellow, meaning it’s indicated for all. For older patients, the color code is purple. If a patient who is age 60 or older wants the hepatitis B vaccine, they can have it even in the absence of additional risk indications.
 

Vaccinations by medical condition or other indications

Other than a few minor word changes on the overlay, the only thing that’s new is the COVID vaccine row.

This table is helpful for matching vaccine recommendations with specific medical conditions, including pregnancy, immunocompromise, HIV (with specifics according to CD4 count), asplenia, complement deficiencies, heart disease, lung disease, alcoholism, chronic liver disease, diabetes, health care personnel, and men who have sex with men.

Use this table to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to vaccination recommendations. For example, take a look at the pregnancy column. Live virus vaccines, including LAIV, MMR, and varicella, are contraindicated and color-coded red. MMR and varicella also have an asterisk, meaning vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated. HPV vaccines are not live virus vaccines, but the overlay says they are not recommended during pregnancy. The asterisk indicates that you can vaccinate after pregnancy.
 

Vaccine notes

The notes are in alphabetical order, and their organization (routine, special situations, and shared clinical decision-making when indicated) has not changed. They are concise and succinct, but sometimes they’re not enough. That’s why vaccine-specific links to more complete recommendations are so convenient.

Notes for hepatitis B contain nuances on specific dosing for vaccinating patients on dialysis, as well as a reminder that newer hepatitis C vaccines such as Heplisav and PreHevbrio are not recommended during pregnancy due to lack of safety data.

For influenza, everyone 6 months or older still needs yearly flu vaccination with an age- and health-appropriate flu vaccine. But for those aged 65 or older, the notes specify the three vaccine versions now preferred: high-dose, recombinant, or adjuvanted versions. However, if these aren’t available, it’s better to get any flu vaccine than to go without.

Under meningococcal vaccines, the notes for MenACWY and MenB are combined. For MenB, trade names Bexsero and Trumenba are specified because the products are not interchangeable. Booster intervals for those still at risk are different for each vaccine type: every 5 years for MenACWY boosters, and every 2-3 years for boosts of MenB.

The recent polio cases in New York have put polio vaccination in the spotlight. ACIP has now reinstated its Polio Vaccine Work Group. The new schedule lists polio vaccines on the cover page. Current recommendations have been added to the notes section. Routine vaccination for adults is not necessary, at least for now. However, those at increased risk for exposure to polio fall in the special-situation category. For those at increased risk who have completed a polio vaccine series, a single lifetime IPV booster can be given. For those at increased risk who have not completed their polio vaccine series, now would be the time to finish the series.
 

Appendix

The final step in using the new schedule is checking the appendix and its list of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions.

I hope this review of the new ACIP adult immunization schedule has been helpful. For Medicine Matters, I’m Dr. Sandra Fryhofer.

Dr. Fryhofer is clinical associate professor of medicine, Emory University, Atlanta. She reported numerous conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. I’m Dr Sandra Fryhofer. Welcome to Medicine Matters. The topic is highlights from ACIP’s new adult schedule for 2023, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and why this new schedule may be a collector’s item.

It’s a new year, which means a new ACIP adult immunization schedule – a valuable resource collating ACIP’s most up-to-date vaccination recommendations.

Here are this year’s five most important changes:

• COVID vaccines now front and center
• New emphasis on polio vaccination
• Inclusion of some nonvaccine products (such as monoclonal antibody products)
• Pharmacists group has approved the schedule for the first time
• New shared clinical decision-making option for pneumococcal vaccines

The schedule’s organization remains the same. It still has four sections:

• Table 1: vaccinations by age
• Table 2: vaccinations by medical condition and other indications
• The Notes section (alphabetically ordered by vaccine type)
• Appendix listing of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions

But what’s unique this year is that some of the abbreviations have historical implications. The first change is no big surprise in light of what we’ve gone through in the past few years. COVID vaccines are listed first on the cover page by brand name for those authorized and by company name for those still under US emergency use authorization. They’re also listed first on the graphics and in the notes.

COVID and mRNA and protein-based vaccines have now been assigned official abbreviations based on vaccine platform and valency.

• 1vCOV-mRNA: Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech and Spikevax Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
• 2vCOV-mRNA: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines
• 1vCOV-aPS: Novavax COVID-19 vaccine

Also remarkable is the absence of COVID viral vector vaccines on the list. However, the viral vector COVID vaccine (which has been available but is not preferred) does have a CDC website link in the Notes section.

A sad but necessary inclusion was triggered by recent polio cases in New York. Polio was believed to be eradicated, and we thought adults no longer needed to be vaccinated against polio. In the new schedule, the polio vaccine is listed on the cover page but is not included in the tables. Current polio vaccination recommendations are now in the Notes section.

Also of historical significance and something that may set a precedent is the inclusion of nonvaccine products. The value of COVID preexposure prophylaxis with products including monoclonal antibodies (such as Evusheld) for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised is mentioned in the Notes section.

For the first time ever, the schedule has been approved by the American Pharmacists Association, which validates pharmacists as established partners in vaccine administration.
 

Color-code key

One aspect of the schedule that has not changed is the color-code key:

• Yellow: Recommended if the patient meets the age requirement
• Purple: Indicated for those with additional risk factors or another indication
• Blue: Recommended based on shared clinical decision-making
• Orange: Precaution
• Red: Contraindicated or not recommended; the vaccine should not be administered. Overlays on the red more precisely clarify whether a vaccine is really contraindicated or just not recommended. An asterisk on red means vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated.
• Gray: No recommendation or not applicable

Vaccinations by age

Table 1 lists recommended vaccinations by age. There is one major change. COVID vaccines are on the first row of the graphic, with the need for both a primary series and boosters emphasized on the overlay. The notes have hyperlinks to the most up-to-date COVID vaccination recommendations.

Pneumococcal vaccination. Pneumococcal vaccination is routinely recommended starting at age 65. Current recommendations for those not previously vaccinated have not changed since last year. But on Table 1, the bottom half of the row for those 65 or older is now blue (and that’s new). This new color blue means shared clinical decision-making and applies to people who were previously considered fully vaccinated with the now extinct combination of PCV13 and PPSV23. These patients now have the option of getting a dose of PCV20 five years after completing their PCV13-PPSV23 combo series. This option is blue because the decision is up to you and your patient.

Check the notes for more pneumococcal vaccination details. For example, for those partially vaccinated using lower valency vaccines, there’s an option of substituting PCV20 for PPSV23 to broaden and increase durability of protection.

The pneumococcal vaccination recommendation options are complicated. A new pneumococcal vaccination app can help.

Hepatitis B. For adults under age 60, the color code for the hepatitis B vaccine is yellow, meaning it’s indicated for all. For older patients, the color code is purple. If a patient who is age 60 or older wants the hepatitis B vaccine, they can have it even in the absence of additional risk indications.
 

Vaccinations by medical condition or other indications

Other than a few minor word changes on the overlay, the only thing that’s new is the COVID vaccine row.

This table is helpful for matching vaccine recommendations with specific medical conditions, including pregnancy, immunocompromise, HIV (with specifics according to CD4 count), asplenia, complement deficiencies, heart disease, lung disease, alcoholism, chronic liver disease, diabetes, health care personnel, and men who have sex with men.

Use this table to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to vaccination recommendations. For example, take a look at the pregnancy column. Live virus vaccines, including LAIV, MMR, and varicella, are contraindicated and color-coded red. MMR and varicella also have an asterisk, meaning vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated. HPV vaccines are not live virus vaccines, but the overlay says they are not recommended during pregnancy. The asterisk indicates that you can vaccinate after pregnancy.
 

Vaccine notes

The notes are in alphabetical order, and their organization (routine, special situations, and shared clinical decision-making when indicated) has not changed. They are concise and succinct, but sometimes they’re not enough. That’s why vaccine-specific links to more complete recommendations are so convenient.

Notes for hepatitis B contain nuances on specific dosing for vaccinating patients on dialysis, as well as a reminder that newer hepatitis C vaccines such as Heplisav and PreHevbrio are not recommended during pregnancy due to lack of safety data.

For influenza, everyone 6 months or older still needs yearly flu vaccination with an age- and health-appropriate flu vaccine. But for those aged 65 or older, the notes specify the three vaccine versions now preferred: high-dose, recombinant, or adjuvanted versions. However, if these aren’t available, it’s better to get any flu vaccine than to go without.

Under meningococcal vaccines, the notes for MenACWY and MenB are combined. For MenB, trade names Bexsero and Trumenba are specified because the products are not interchangeable. Booster intervals for those still at risk are different for each vaccine type: every 5 years for MenACWY boosters, and every 2-3 years for boosts of MenB.

The recent polio cases in New York have put polio vaccination in the spotlight. ACIP has now reinstated its Polio Vaccine Work Group. The new schedule lists polio vaccines on the cover page. Current recommendations have been added to the notes section. Routine vaccination for adults is not necessary, at least for now. However, those at increased risk for exposure to polio fall in the special-situation category. For those at increased risk who have completed a polio vaccine series, a single lifetime IPV booster can be given. For those at increased risk who have not completed their polio vaccine series, now would be the time to finish the series.
 

Appendix

The final step in using the new schedule is checking the appendix and its list of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions.

I hope this review of the new ACIP adult immunization schedule has been helpful. For Medicine Matters, I’m Dr. Sandra Fryhofer.

Dr. Fryhofer is clinical associate professor of medicine, Emory University, Atlanta. She reported numerous conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. I’m Dr Sandra Fryhofer. Welcome to Medicine Matters. The topic is highlights from ACIP’s new adult schedule for 2023, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and why this new schedule may be a collector’s item.

It’s a new year, which means a new ACIP adult immunization schedule – a valuable resource collating ACIP’s most up-to-date vaccination recommendations.

Here are this year’s five most important changes:

• COVID vaccines now front and center
• New emphasis on polio vaccination
• Inclusion of some nonvaccine products (such as monoclonal antibody products)
• Pharmacists group has approved the schedule for the first time
• New shared clinical decision-making option for pneumococcal vaccines

The schedule’s organization remains the same. It still has four sections:

• Table 1: vaccinations by age
• Table 2: vaccinations by medical condition and other indications
• The Notes section (alphabetically ordered by vaccine type)
• Appendix listing of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions

But what’s unique this year is that some of the abbreviations have historical implications. The first change is no big surprise in light of what we’ve gone through in the past few years. COVID vaccines are listed first on the cover page by brand name for those authorized and by company name for those still under US emergency use authorization. They’re also listed first on the graphics and in the notes.

COVID and mRNA and protein-based vaccines have now been assigned official abbreviations based on vaccine platform and valency.

• 1vCOV-mRNA: Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech and Spikevax Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
• 2vCOV-mRNA: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines
• 1vCOV-aPS: Novavax COVID-19 vaccine

Also remarkable is the absence of COVID viral vector vaccines on the list. However, the viral vector COVID vaccine (which has been available but is not preferred) does have a CDC website link in the Notes section.

A sad but necessary inclusion was triggered by recent polio cases in New York. Polio was believed to be eradicated, and we thought adults no longer needed to be vaccinated against polio. In the new schedule, the polio vaccine is listed on the cover page but is not included in the tables. Current polio vaccination recommendations are now in the Notes section.

Also of historical significance and something that may set a precedent is the inclusion of nonvaccine products. The value of COVID preexposure prophylaxis with products including monoclonal antibodies (such as Evusheld) for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised is mentioned in the Notes section.

For the first time ever, the schedule has been approved by the American Pharmacists Association, which validates pharmacists as established partners in vaccine administration.
 

Color-code key

One aspect of the schedule that has not changed is the color-code key:

• Yellow: Recommended if the patient meets the age requirement
• Purple: Indicated for those with additional risk factors or another indication
• Blue: Recommended based on shared clinical decision-making
• Orange: Precaution
• Red: Contraindicated or not recommended; the vaccine should not be administered. Overlays on the red more precisely clarify whether a vaccine is really contraindicated or just not recommended. An asterisk on red means vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated.
• Gray: No recommendation or not applicable

Vaccinations by age

Table 1 lists recommended vaccinations by age. There is one major change. COVID vaccines are on the first row of the graphic, with the need for both a primary series and boosters emphasized on the overlay. The notes have hyperlinks to the most up-to-date COVID vaccination recommendations.

Pneumococcal vaccination. Pneumococcal vaccination is routinely recommended starting at age 65. Current recommendations for those not previously vaccinated have not changed since last year. But on Table 1, the bottom half of the row for those 65 or older is now blue (and that’s new). This new color blue means shared clinical decision-making and applies to people who were previously considered fully vaccinated with the now extinct combination of PCV13 and PPSV23. These patients now have the option of getting a dose of PCV20 five years after completing their PCV13-PPSV23 combo series. This option is blue because the decision is up to you and your patient.

Check the notes for more pneumococcal vaccination details. For example, for those partially vaccinated using lower valency vaccines, there’s an option of substituting PCV20 for PPSV23 to broaden and increase durability of protection.

The pneumococcal vaccination recommendation options are complicated. A new pneumococcal vaccination app can help.

Hepatitis B. For adults under age 60, the color code for the hepatitis B vaccine is yellow, meaning it’s indicated for all. For older patients, the color code is purple. If a patient who is age 60 or older wants the hepatitis B vaccine, they can have it even in the absence of additional risk indications.
 

Vaccinations by medical condition or other indications

Other than a few minor word changes on the overlay, the only thing that’s new is the COVID vaccine row.

This table is helpful for matching vaccine recommendations with specific medical conditions, including pregnancy, immunocompromise, HIV (with specifics according to CD4 count), asplenia, complement deficiencies, heart disease, lung disease, alcoholism, chronic liver disease, diabetes, health care personnel, and men who have sex with men.

Use this table to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to vaccination recommendations. For example, take a look at the pregnancy column. Live virus vaccines, including LAIV, MMR, and varicella, are contraindicated and color-coded red. MMR and varicella also have an asterisk, meaning vaccinate after pregnancy if indicated. HPV vaccines are not live virus vaccines, but the overlay says they are not recommended during pregnancy. The asterisk indicates that you can vaccinate after pregnancy.
 

Vaccine notes

The notes are in alphabetical order, and their organization (routine, special situations, and shared clinical decision-making when indicated) has not changed. They are concise and succinct, but sometimes they’re not enough. That’s why vaccine-specific links to more complete recommendations are so convenient.

Notes for hepatitis B contain nuances on specific dosing for vaccinating patients on dialysis, as well as a reminder that newer hepatitis C vaccines such as Heplisav and PreHevbrio are not recommended during pregnancy due to lack of safety data.

For influenza, everyone 6 months or older still needs yearly flu vaccination with an age- and health-appropriate flu vaccine. But for those aged 65 or older, the notes specify the three vaccine versions now preferred: high-dose, recombinant, or adjuvanted versions. However, if these aren’t available, it’s better to get any flu vaccine than to go without.

Under meningococcal vaccines, the notes for MenACWY and MenB are combined. For MenB, trade names Bexsero and Trumenba are specified because the products are not interchangeable. Booster intervals for those still at risk are different for each vaccine type: every 5 years for MenACWY boosters, and every 2-3 years for boosts of MenB.

The recent polio cases in New York have put polio vaccination in the spotlight. ACIP has now reinstated its Polio Vaccine Work Group. The new schedule lists polio vaccines on the cover page. Current recommendations have been added to the notes section. Routine vaccination for adults is not necessary, at least for now. However, those at increased risk for exposure to polio fall in the special-situation category. For those at increased risk who have completed a polio vaccine series, a single lifetime IPV booster can be given. For those at increased risk who have not completed their polio vaccine series, now would be the time to finish the series.
 

Appendix

The final step in using the new schedule is checking the appendix and its list of vaccine-specific contraindications and precautions.

I hope this review of the new ACIP adult immunization schedule has been helpful. For Medicine Matters, I’m Dr. Sandra Fryhofer.

Dr. Fryhofer is clinical associate professor of medicine, Emory University, Atlanta. She reported numerous conflicts of interest.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Growing up I can remember my father telling stories of service members in the medical battalion he commanded in World War II (WWII) who after the war with his encouragement and their GI Bill educational benefits went to school to become doctors, nurses, and dentists. They were among the 2,300,000 veterans who attended US colleges and universities through the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act passed in 1944. The American Legion navigated the bill through the twists and turns of congressional support, and it was one of their leaders who invented the catchy GI Bill shorthand.²

As with most political legislation, there were mixed motives driving passage of the act, and like many policies in America, the primary impetus was economic. While the war was raging overseas, at home the US Department of Labor predicted that by the war’s end, 16 million service members would be jobless. Apprehensive about the prospect of yet another financial depression, in 1943 a White House agency recommended that the federal government fund education and training for the individuals who had served during the war.²

While troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) signed the bill that delivered not only educational and training opportunities for service members and veterans, but also funded home loans and US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. The bill was practical in that it provided not only tuition, but also books, supplies, a living stipend, and counseling for the students. The bill technically expired in 1956, but a series of extensions and expansions has been true to the original intention to offer those who served their nation in the military a better life as citizens.

Articles describing the impact of the GI Bill use terms like life changing and transformative.^3,4 Our contemporary culture makes it difficult to imagine how out of reach a college education was for the generation that fought WWII. Universities were primarily for the rich and connected, the powerful and privileged. Were it not for the upward social mobility the GI Bill propelled, the American dream would not have become a reality for many farmers, small town merchants, and factory workers. The GI Bill though could not by itself ensure equity. The systemic racism endemic in the United States and among the elected representatives who debated the bill resulted in many Black service members especially in the South being denied entrance to institutions of higher learning.⁵ Despite this invidious discrimination, the bill was a profound effort to help many other service members to successfully reintegrate into the society they had preserved and defended.⁴

“With the signing of this bill, a well-rounded program of special veterans’ benefits is nearly completed,” FDR said, capturing its noble intent: “It gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”⁶

Regrettably, we have not kept FDR’s pledge. Now unscrupulous businesses are preying on the aspirations of military personnel and veterans for an education and thwarting their ability to seek gainful employment. For more than a decade, respected news media have reported that for-profit universities were exploiting service members trying to improve their lives through obtaining a college education via the GI Bill.⁷ The sad irony is that what enabled the exploitation to occur was a major expansion of the benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This version granted educational funding to any individual who had served on active duty for 90 days or more after September 10, 2001.⁸ Federal law prohibits for-profit educational institutions from receiving more than 90% of their total revenue from federal student aid. A loophole in the law enabled these institutions to categorize GI Bill funding as private not government dollars. Bad old American greed drove these for-profit colleges and universities to aggressively recruit veterans who trusted in the good faith of the academic institutions. Once the GI Bill monies were exhausted, veterans had already invested so much time and energy in a degree or certificate, the schools could persuade them to take out student loans with the promise of job placement assistance that never materialized. They took advantage of the veterans’ hopes to fatten their own bottom line in the face of declining enrolments.⁹ Journalists, government, think tank reports, and even a documentary described the tragic stories of service members left unemployed with immense debt and degrees that to many of them were now worthless.¹⁰

After years of reporters exposing the scam and politically thwarted efforts to stop it, Congress and President Biden closed what was known as the 90/10 loophole. This ended the weaponization of education it had promoted. In October 2022, the US Department of Education announced its final rule to prohibit the widespread educational fraud that had betrayed so many veterans and service members, which Secretary Dennis McDonough described as “abuse.”¹¹Some readers may wonder why I have devoted an editorial to a topic that seems somewhat distant from the health care that is the primary domain of Federal Practitioner. It happens that education is in closer proximity to health for our patients than many of us might have realized. A 2018 Military Medicine study found that veterans who took advantage of the educational opportunities of the GI Bill had better health and reduced smoking, among other benefits.¹² This connection between health and education should serve as a source of pride for all of us in federal practice as we are part of organizations that affirm the holistic concept of health that embraces not just medicine but education, housing, and other services essential for comprehensive well-being.

Growing up I can remember my father telling stories of service members in the medical battalion he commanded in World War II (WWII) who after the war with his encouragement and their GI Bill educational benefits went to school to become doctors, nurses, and dentists. They were among the 2,300,000 veterans who attended US colleges and universities through the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act passed in 1944. The American Legion navigated the bill through the twists and turns of congressional support, and it was one of their leaders who invented the catchy GI Bill shorthand.²

As with most political legislation, there were mixed motives driving passage of the act, and like many policies in America, the primary impetus was economic. While the war was raging overseas, at home the US Department of Labor predicted that by the war’s end, 16 million service members would be jobless. Apprehensive about the prospect of yet another financial depression, in 1943 a White House agency recommended that the federal government fund education and training for the individuals who had served during the war.²

While troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) signed the bill that delivered not only educational and training opportunities for service members and veterans, but also funded home loans and US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. The bill was practical in that it provided not only tuition, but also books, supplies, a living stipend, and counseling for the students. The bill technically expired in 1956, but a series of extensions and expansions has been true to the original intention to offer those who served their nation in the military a better life as citizens.

Articles describing the impact of the GI Bill use terms like life changing and transformative.^3,4 Our contemporary culture makes it difficult to imagine how out of reach a college education was for the generation that fought WWII. Universities were primarily for the rich and connected, the powerful and privileged. Were it not for the upward social mobility the GI Bill propelled, the American dream would not have become a reality for many farmers, small town merchants, and factory workers. The GI Bill though could not by itself ensure equity. The systemic racism endemic in the United States and among the elected representatives who debated the bill resulted in many Black service members especially in the South being denied entrance to institutions of higher learning.⁵ Despite this invidious discrimination, the bill was a profound effort to help many other service members to successfully reintegrate into the society they had preserved and defended.⁴

“With the signing of this bill, a well-rounded program of special veterans’ benefits is nearly completed,” FDR said, capturing its noble intent: “It gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”⁶

Regrettably, we have not kept FDR’s pledge. Now unscrupulous businesses are preying on the aspirations of military personnel and veterans for an education and thwarting their ability to seek gainful employment. For more than a decade, respected news media have reported that for-profit universities were exploiting service members trying to improve their lives through obtaining a college education via the GI Bill.⁷ The sad irony is that what enabled the exploitation to occur was a major expansion of the benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This version granted educational funding to any individual who had served on active duty for 90 days or more after September 10, 2001.⁸ Federal law prohibits for-profit educational institutions from receiving more than 90% of their total revenue from federal student aid. A loophole in the law enabled these institutions to categorize GI Bill funding as private not government dollars. Bad old American greed drove these for-profit colleges and universities to aggressively recruit veterans who trusted in the good faith of the academic institutions. Once the GI Bill monies were exhausted, veterans had already invested so much time and energy in a degree or certificate, the schools could persuade them to take out student loans with the promise of job placement assistance that never materialized. They took advantage of the veterans’ hopes to fatten their own bottom line in the face of declining enrolments.⁹ Journalists, government, think tank reports, and even a documentary described the tragic stories of service members left unemployed with immense debt and degrees that to many of them were now worthless.¹⁰

After years of reporters exposing the scam and politically thwarted efforts to stop it, Congress and President Biden closed what was known as the 90/10 loophole. This ended the weaponization of education it had promoted. In October 2022, the US Department of Education announced its final rule to prohibit the widespread educational fraud that had betrayed so many veterans and service members, which Secretary Dennis McDonough described as “abuse.”¹¹Some readers may wonder why I have devoted an editorial to a topic that seems somewhat distant from the health care that is the primary domain of Federal Practitioner. It happens that education is in closer proximity to health for our patients than many of us might have realized. A 2018 Military Medicine study found that veterans who took advantage of the educational opportunities of the GI Bill had better health and reduced smoking, among other benefits.¹² This connection between health and education should serve as a source of pride for all of us in federal practice as we are part of organizations that affirm the holistic concept of health that embraces not just medicine but education, housing, and other services essential for comprehensive well-being.

Growing up I can remember my father telling stories of service members in the medical battalion he commanded in World War II (WWII) who after the war with his encouragement and their GI Bill educational benefits went to school to become doctors, nurses, and dentists. They were among the 2,300,000 veterans who attended US colleges and universities through the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act passed in 1944. The American Legion navigated the bill through the twists and turns of congressional support, and it was one of their leaders who invented the catchy GI Bill shorthand.²

As with most political legislation, there were mixed motives driving passage of the act, and like many policies in America, the primary impetus was economic. While the war was raging overseas, at home the US Department of Labor predicted that by the war’s end, 16 million service members would be jobless. Apprehensive about the prospect of yet another financial depression, in 1943 a White House agency recommended that the federal government fund education and training for the individuals who had served during the war.²

While troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) signed the bill that delivered not only educational and training opportunities for service members and veterans, but also funded home loans and US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. The bill was practical in that it provided not only tuition, but also books, supplies, a living stipend, and counseling for the students. The bill technically expired in 1956, but a series of extensions and expansions has been true to the original intention to offer those who served their nation in the military a better life as citizens.

Articles describing the impact of the GI Bill use terms like life changing and transformative.^3,4 Our contemporary culture makes it difficult to imagine how out of reach a college education was for the generation that fought WWII. Universities were primarily for the rich and connected, the powerful and privileged. Were it not for the upward social mobility the GI Bill propelled, the American dream would not have become a reality for many farmers, small town merchants, and factory workers. The GI Bill though could not by itself ensure equity. The systemic racism endemic in the United States and among the elected representatives who debated the bill resulted in many Black service members especially in the South being denied entrance to institutions of higher learning.⁵ Despite this invidious discrimination, the bill was a profound effort to help many other service members to successfully reintegrate into the society they had preserved and defended.⁴

“With the signing of this bill, a well-rounded program of special veterans’ benefits is nearly completed,” FDR said, capturing its noble intent: “It gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”⁶

Regrettably, we have not kept FDR’s pledge. Now unscrupulous businesses are preying on the aspirations of military personnel and veterans for an education and thwarting their ability to seek gainful employment. For more than a decade, respected news media have reported that for-profit universities were exploiting service members trying to improve their lives through obtaining a college education via the GI Bill.⁷ The sad irony is that what enabled the exploitation to occur was a major expansion of the benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This version granted educational funding to any individual who had served on active duty for 90 days or more after September 10, 2001.⁸ Federal law prohibits for-profit educational institutions from receiving more than 90% of their total revenue from federal student aid. A loophole in the law enabled these institutions to categorize GI Bill funding as private not government dollars. Bad old American greed drove these for-profit colleges and universities to aggressively recruit veterans who trusted in the good faith of the academic institutions. Once the GI Bill monies were exhausted, veterans had already invested so much time and energy in a degree or certificate, the schools could persuade them to take out student loans with the promise of job placement assistance that never materialized. They took advantage of the veterans’ hopes to fatten their own bottom line in the face of declining enrolments.⁹ Journalists, government, think tank reports, and even a documentary described the tragic stories of service members left unemployed with immense debt and degrees that to many of them were now worthless.¹⁰

After years of reporters exposing the scam and politically thwarted efforts to stop it, Congress and President Biden closed what was known as the 90/10 loophole. This ended the weaponization of education it had promoted. In October 2022, the US Department of Education announced its final rule to prohibit the widespread educational fraud that had betrayed so many veterans and service members, which Secretary Dennis McDonough described as “abuse.”¹¹Some readers may wonder why I have devoted an editorial to a topic that seems somewhat distant from the health care that is the primary domain of Federal Practitioner. It happens that education is in closer proximity to health for our patients than many of us might have realized. A 2018 Military Medicine study found that veterans who took advantage of the educational opportunities of the GI Bill had better health and reduced smoking, among other benefits.¹² This connection between health and education should serve as a source of pride for all of us in federal practice as we are part of organizations that affirm the holistic concept of health that embraces not just medicine but education, housing, and other services essential for comprehensive well-being.

Veterans who interact with the criminal justice system (ie, justice-involved veterans) have heightened rates of mental health and psychosocial needs, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder, depression, suicidal ideation and attempt, and homelessness.^1,2 Alongside these criminogenic risk factors, recidivism is common among justice-involved veterans: About 70% of incarcerated veterans disclosed at least one prior incarceration.³

To address the complex interplay of psychosocial factors, mental health concerns, and justice involvement among veterans, veterans treatment courts (VTCs) emerged as an alternative to incarceration.⁴ VTC participation often consists of integrated treatment and rehabilitative services (eg, vocational training, health care), ongoing monitoring for substance use, graduated responses to address treatment adherence, and ongoing communication with the judge and legal counsel.⁴

A primary aim of these courts is to address psychosocial needs believed to underlie criminal behavior, thus reducing risk of recidivism and promoting successful recovery and community integration for eligible veterans. To do so, VTCs collaborate with community-based and/or US Department of Veterans Affairs services, such as the Veterans Justice Outreach program (VJO). VJO specialists identify and refer justice-involved veterans to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community care and serve as a liaison between VTC staff and VHA health care professionals (HCPs).⁵

VTC outcome studies highlight the importance of not only diverting veterans to problem-solving courts, but also ensuring their optimal participation. Successful graduates of VTC programs demonstrate significant improvements in mental health symptoms, life satisfaction, and social support, as well as lower rates of law enforcement interactions.^6,7 However, less is known about supporting those veterans who have difficulty engaging in VTCs and either discontinue participation or require lengthier periods of participation to meet court graduation requirements.⁸ One possibility to improve engagement among these veterans is to enhance court practices to best meet their needs.

In addition to delivering treatment, VHA mental health professionals may serve a critical interdisciplinary role by lending expertise to support VTC practices. For example, equipping court professionals with clinical knowledge and skills related to motivation may strengthen the staff’s interactions with participants, enabling them to address barriers as they arise and to facilitate veterans’ treatment adherence. Additionally, responsiveness to the impact of trauma exposure, which is common among this population, may prove important as related symptoms can affect veterans’ engagement, receptivity, and behavior in court settings. Indeed, prior examinations of justice-involved veterans have found trauma exposure rates ranging from 60% to 90% and PTSD rates ranging from 27% to 40%.^1,2 Notably, involvement with the justice system (eg, incarceration) may itself further increase risk of trauma exposure (eg, experiencing a physical or sexual assault in prison) or exacerbate existing PTSD.⁹ Nonetheless, whereas many drug courts and domestic violence courts have been established, problem-solving courts with a specialized focus on trauma exposure remain rare, suggesting a potential gap in court training.

VHA HCPs have the potential to facilitate justice-involved veterans’ successful court and treatment participation by coordinating with VJO specialists to provide training and consultation to the courts. Supporting efforts to effectively and responsively address criminogenic risk (eg, mental health) in VTC settings may in turn reduce the likelihood of recidivism.¹⁰ Given the elevated rates of trauma exposure among justice-involved veterans and the relative lack of trauma-focused VTCs, we developed a trauma-informed training for VTC professionals that centered on related clinical presentations of justice-involved veterans and frequently occurring challenges in the context of court participation.

Program Development

This educational program aimed to (1) provide psychoeducation on trauma exposure, PTSD, and existing evidence-based treatments; (2) present clinical considerations for justice-involved veterans related to trauma exposure and/or PTSD; and (3) introduce skills to facilitate effective communication and trauma-informed care practices among professionals working with veterans in a treatment court.

Prior to piloting the program, we conducted a needs assessment with VTC professionals and identified relevant theoretical constructs and brief interventions for inclusion in the training. Additionally, given the dearth of prior research on mental health education for VTCs, the team consulted with the developers of PTSD 101, a VHA workshop for veterans’ families that promotes psychoeducation, support, and effective communication.¹¹ Doing so informed approaches to delivering education to nonclinical audiences that interact with veterans with histories of trauma exposure. As this was a program development project, it was determined to be exempt from institutional review board review.

Needs Assessment

In the initial stages of development, local VJO specialists identified regional VTCs and facilitated introductions to these courts. Two of the 3 Rocky Mountain region VTCs that were contacted expressed interest in receiving trauma-informed training. Based on preliminary interest, the facilitators conducted a needs assessment with VJO and VTC staff from these 2 courts to capture requests for specific content and past experiences with other mental health trainings.

Guided by the focus group model, the needs assessments took place during three 1-hour meetings with VJO specialists and a 1-hour meeting with VJO specialists, VTC professionals, and community-based clinical partners.¹² Additionally, attending a VTC graduation and court session allowed for observations of court practices and interactions with veterans. A total of 13 professionals (judges, court coordinators, case managers, peer mentors, VJO specialists, and clinicians who specialize in substance use disorder and intimate partner violence) participated in the needs assessments.

The most critical need identified by court professionals was a focus on how to apply knowledge about trauma and PTSD to interactions with justice-involved veterans. This was reportedly absent from prior training sessions the courts had received. Both Rocky Mountain region VTCs expressed a strong interest in and openness to adapting practices based on research and practice recommendations. Additional requests that emerged included a refresher on psychoeducation related to trauma and how to address the personal impact of working with this population (eg, compassion fatigue).

Training Components

Based on the needs identified by VTC professionals and informed by consultation with the developers of PTSD 101,

Fostering court familiarity with cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure may bolster veteran engagement in treatment through regular reinforcement of skills and concepts introduced in therapy. This may prove particularly salient given the limited engagement with mental health treatment and elevated dropout rates from PTSD treatment among the general veteran population.^15,16

Exercises and metaphors were used to illustrate concepts in multiple ways. For example, training attendees engaged in a “stop, drop, and roll” thought exercise in which they were asked to brainstorm behavioral reactions to catching on fire. This exercise illustrated the tendency for individuals to revert to common yet unhelpful attempts at problem solving (eg, running due to panic, which would exacerbate the fire), particularly in crisis and without prior education regarding adaptive ways to respond. Attendee-generated examples, such as running, were used to demonstrate the importance of practicing and reinforcing skill development prior to a crisis, to ensure proficiency and optimal response. Additionally, in prompting consideration of one’s response tendencies, this exercise may engender empathy and understanding for veterans.

Skills training. Efforts to promote veteran engagement in court, facilitate motivation and readiness for change, and address barriers that arise (eg, distress associated with court appearances) may support successful and timely graduation. As such, skills training constituted the largest component of the training and drew from observations of court practices and the VTCs’ identified challenges. Consistent with the project’s aims and reported needs of the court, skills that target common presentations following trauma exposure (eg, avoidance, hypervigilance) were prioritized for this pilot training. Strategies included brief interventions from dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and motivational interviewing to strengthen the support provided by staff to veterans and address their needs (Table 2).

Training attendees also participated in exercises to reiterate skills. For example, attendees completed an ambivalence matrix using an audience-identified common behavior that is difficult to change (eg, heavy alcohol use as a coping mechanism for distress).

Attendees engaged in an exercise that involved identifying unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, targets for validation, and veteran strengths from a hypothetical case vignette. This vignette involved a VTC participant who initially engaged effectively but began to demonstrate difficulty appropriately engaging in court and mental health treatment as well as challenging interactions with VTC staff (eg, raised voice during court sessions, not respecting communication boundaries).

Pilot Test

Based on scheduling parameters communicated by court coordinators, the pilot training was designed as a presentation during times reserved for court staffing meetings. To accommodate court preferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one 90-minute training was conducted virtually in March 2022, and the other training was conducted in person in April 2022 for 2 hours. The trainings were facilitated by 2 VHA clinical psychologists and included the judge, court coordinator, VJO specialist, peer mentors, case managers, probation/parole officers, and community-based HCPs who partner with the court (eg, social workers, psychologists). About 12 to 15 professionals attended each training session.

Feedback

Feedback was solicited from attendees via an anonymous online survey. Seven participants completed the survey; the response rate of about 20% was consistent with those observed for other surveys of court professionals.²⁰ Many attendees also provided feedback directly to the facilitators. Feedback highlighted that the skills-based components not only were perceived as most helpful but also notably distinguished this training. “What set this training apart from other training events was the practical applications,” one attendee noted. “It was not just information or education, both instructors did an incredible job of explaining exactly how we could apply the knowledge they were sharing. They did this in such a way that it was easy to understand and apply.”

Specific skills were consistently identified as helpful, including managing intense emotions, addressing ambivalence, and approaching sanctions and rewards. Additionally, employing a less formal approach to the training, with relatable overviews of concepts and immediate responsiveness to requests for expansion on a topic, was perceived as a unique benefit: Another attendee appreciated that “It was beneficial to sit around a table with a less formal presentation and be able to ask questions.” This approach seemed particularly well suited for the program’s cross-disciplinary audience. Attendees reported that they valued the relatively limited focus on DSM-5 criteria. Attendees emphasized that education specific to veterans on evidence-based PTSD treatments, psychoeducation, and avoidance was very helpful. Respondents also recommended that the training be lengthened to a daylong workshop to accommodate greater opportunity to practice skills and consultation.

The consultation portion of the training provided insight into additional areas of importance to incorporate into future iterations. Identified needs included appropriate and realistic boundary setting (eg, addressing disruptions in the courtroom), suggestions for improving and expanding homework assigned by the court, and ways to address concerns about PTSD treatment shared by veterans in court (eg, attributing substance use relapses to the intensiveness of trauma-focused treatment vs lack of familiarity with alternate coping skills). Additionally, the VTC professionals’ desire to support mental health professionals’ work with veterans was clearly evident, highlighting the bidirectional value of interdisciplinary collaboration between VHA mental health professionals and VTC professionals.

Discussion

A trauma-informed training was developed and delivered to 2 VTCs in the Rocky Mountain region with the goal of providing relevant psychoeducation and introducing skills to bolster court practices that address veteran needs. Psychoeducational components of the training that were particularly well received and prompted significant participant engagement included discussions and examples of avoidance, levels of validation, language to facilitate motivation and address barriers, mechanisms underlying treatment, and potential functions underlying limited veteran treatment engagement. Distress tolerance, approaches to sanctions and rewards, and use of ambivalence matrices to guide motivation were identified as particularly helpful skills.

The pilot phase of this trauma-informed training provided valuable insights into developing mental health trainings for VTCs. Specifically, VTCs may benefit from the expertise of VHA HCPs and are particularly interested in learning brief skills to improve their practices. The usefulness of such trainings may be bolstered by efforts to form relationships with the court to identify their perceived needs and employing an iterative process that is responsive to feedback both during and after the training. Last, each stage of this project was strengthened by collaboration with VJO specialists, highlighting the importance of future collaboration between VJO and VHA mental health clinics to further support justice-involved veterans. For example, VJO specialists were instrumental in identifying training needs related to veterans’ clinical presentations in court, facilitating introductions to local VTCs, and helping to address barriers to piloting, like scheduling.

Modifications and Future Directions

The insights gained through the process of training design, delivery, and feedback inform future development of this training. Based on the feedback received, subsequent versions of the training may be expanded into a half- or full-day workshop to allow for adequate time for skills training and feedback, as well as consultation. Doing so will enable facilitators to further foster attendees’ familiarity with and confidence in their ability to use these skills. Furthermore, the consultation portion of this training revealed areas that may benefit from greater attention, including how to address challenging interactions in court (eg, addressing gender dynamics between court professionals and participants) and better support veterans who are having difficulty engaging in mental health treatment (eg, courts’ observation of high rates of dropout around the third or fourth session of evidence-based treatment for PTSD). Last, all attendees who responded to the survey expressed interest in a brief resource guide based on the training, emphasizing the need for ready access to key skills and concepts to support the use of strategies learned.

An additional future aim of this project is to conduct a more thorough evaluation of the needs and outcomes related to this trauma-informed training for VTC professionals. With the rapid growth of VTCs nationwide, relatively little examination of court processes and practices has occurred, and there is a lack of research on the development or effectiveness of mental health trainings provided to VTCs.²¹ Therefore, we intend to conduct larger scale qualitative interviews with court personnel and VJO specialists to obtain a clearer understanding of the needs related to skills-based training and gaps in psychoeducation. These comprehensive needs assessments may also capture common comorbidities that were not incorporated into the pilot training (eg, substance use disorders) but may be important training targets for court professionals. This information will be used to inform subsequent expansion and adaptation of the training into a longer workshop. Program evaluation will be conducted via survey-based feedback on perceived usefulness of the workshop and self-report of confidence in and use of strategies to improve court practices. Furthermore, efforts to obtain veteran outcome data, such as treatment engagement and successful participation in VTC, may be pursued.

Limitations

This training development and pilot project provided valuable foundational information regarding a largely unexamined component of treatment courts—the benefit of skills-based trainings to facilitate court practices related to justice-involved veterans. However, it is worth noting that survey responses were limited; thus, the feedback received may not reflect all attendees’ perceptions. Additionally, because both training sessions were conducted solely with 2 courts in the Rocky Mountain area, feedback may be limited to the needs of this geographic region.

Conclusions

A trauma-informed training was developed for VTCs to facilitate relevant understanding of justice-involved veterans’ needs and presentations in court, introduce skills to address challenges that arise (eg, motivation, emotional dysregulation), and provide interdisciplinary support to court professionals. This training was an important step toward fostering strong collaborations between VHA HCPs and community-based veterans courts, and feedback received during development and following implementation highlighted the perceived need for a skills-based approach to such trainings. Further program development and evaluation can strengthen this training and provide a foundation for dissemination to a broader scope of VTCs, with the goal of reducing recidivism risk among justice-involved veterans by promoting effective engagement in problem-solving court.

Veterans who interact with the criminal justice system (ie, justice-involved veterans) have heightened rates of mental health and psychosocial needs, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder, depression, suicidal ideation and attempt, and homelessness.^1,2 Alongside these criminogenic risk factors, recidivism is common among justice-involved veterans: About 70% of incarcerated veterans disclosed at least one prior incarceration.³

To address the complex interplay of psychosocial factors, mental health concerns, and justice involvement among veterans, veterans treatment courts (VTCs) emerged as an alternative to incarceration.⁴ VTC participation often consists of integrated treatment and rehabilitative services (eg, vocational training, health care), ongoing monitoring for substance use, graduated responses to address treatment adherence, and ongoing communication with the judge and legal counsel.⁴

A primary aim of these courts is to address psychosocial needs believed to underlie criminal behavior, thus reducing risk of recidivism and promoting successful recovery and community integration for eligible veterans. To do so, VTCs collaborate with community-based and/or US Department of Veterans Affairs services, such as the Veterans Justice Outreach program (VJO). VJO specialists identify and refer justice-involved veterans to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community care and serve as a liaison between VTC staff and VHA health care professionals (HCPs).⁵

VTC outcome studies highlight the importance of not only diverting veterans to problem-solving courts, but also ensuring their optimal participation. Successful graduates of VTC programs demonstrate significant improvements in mental health symptoms, life satisfaction, and social support, as well as lower rates of law enforcement interactions.^6,7 However, less is known about supporting those veterans who have difficulty engaging in VTCs and either discontinue participation or require lengthier periods of participation to meet court graduation requirements.⁸ One possibility to improve engagement among these veterans is to enhance court practices to best meet their needs.

In addition to delivering treatment, VHA mental health professionals may serve a critical interdisciplinary role by lending expertise to support VTC practices. For example, equipping court professionals with clinical knowledge and skills related to motivation may strengthen the staff’s interactions with participants, enabling them to address barriers as they arise and to facilitate veterans’ treatment adherence. Additionally, responsiveness to the impact of trauma exposure, which is common among this population, may prove important as related symptoms can affect veterans’ engagement, receptivity, and behavior in court settings. Indeed, prior examinations of justice-involved veterans have found trauma exposure rates ranging from 60% to 90% and PTSD rates ranging from 27% to 40%.^1,2 Notably, involvement with the justice system (eg, incarceration) may itself further increase risk of trauma exposure (eg, experiencing a physical or sexual assault in prison) or exacerbate existing PTSD.⁹ Nonetheless, whereas many drug courts and domestic violence courts have been established, problem-solving courts with a specialized focus on trauma exposure remain rare, suggesting a potential gap in court training.

VHA HCPs have the potential to facilitate justice-involved veterans’ successful court and treatment participation by coordinating with VJO specialists to provide training and consultation to the courts. Supporting efforts to effectively and responsively address criminogenic risk (eg, mental health) in VTC settings may in turn reduce the likelihood of recidivism.¹⁰ Given the elevated rates of trauma exposure among justice-involved veterans and the relative lack of trauma-focused VTCs, we developed a trauma-informed training for VTC professionals that centered on related clinical presentations of justice-involved veterans and frequently occurring challenges in the context of court participation.

Program Development

This educational program aimed to (1) provide psychoeducation on trauma exposure, PTSD, and existing evidence-based treatments; (2) present clinical considerations for justice-involved veterans related to trauma exposure and/or PTSD; and (3) introduce skills to facilitate effective communication and trauma-informed care practices among professionals working with veterans in a treatment court.

Prior to piloting the program, we conducted a needs assessment with VTC professionals and identified relevant theoretical constructs and brief interventions for inclusion in the training. Additionally, given the dearth of prior research on mental health education for VTCs, the team consulted with the developers of PTSD 101, a VHA workshop for veterans’ families that promotes psychoeducation, support, and effective communication.¹¹ Doing so informed approaches to delivering education to nonclinical audiences that interact with veterans with histories of trauma exposure. As this was a program development project, it was determined to be exempt from institutional review board review.

Needs Assessment

In the initial stages of development, local VJO specialists identified regional VTCs and facilitated introductions to these courts. Two of the 3 Rocky Mountain region VTCs that were contacted expressed interest in receiving trauma-informed training. Based on preliminary interest, the facilitators conducted a needs assessment with VJO and VTC staff from these 2 courts to capture requests for specific content and past experiences with other mental health trainings.

Guided by the focus group model, the needs assessments took place during three 1-hour meetings with VJO specialists and a 1-hour meeting with VJO specialists, VTC professionals, and community-based clinical partners.¹² Additionally, attending a VTC graduation and court session allowed for observations of court practices and interactions with veterans. A total of 13 professionals (judges, court coordinators, case managers, peer mentors, VJO specialists, and clinicians who specialize in substance use disorder and intimate partner violence) participated in the needs assessments.

The most critical need identified by court professionals was a focus on how to apply knowledge about trauma and PTSD to interactions with justice-involved veterans. This was reportedly absent from prior training sessions the courts had received. Both Rocky Mountain region VTCs expressed a strong interest in and openness to adapting practices based on research and practice recommendations. Additional requests that emerged included a refresher on psychoeducation related to trauma and how to address the personal impact of working with this population (eg, compassion fatigue).

Training Components

Based on the needs identified by VTC professionals and informed by consultation with the developers of PTSD 101,

Fostering court familiarity with cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure may bolster veteran engagement in treatment through regular reinforcement of skills and concepts introduced in therapy. This may prove particularly salient given the limited engagement with mental health treatment and elevated dropout rates from PTSD treatment among the general veteran population.^15,16

Exercises and metaphors were used to illustrate concepts in multiple ways. For example, training attendees engaged in a “stop, drop, and roll” thought exercise in which they were asked to brainstorm behavioral reactions to catching on fire. This exercise illustrated the tendency for individuals to revert to common yet unhelpful attempts at problem solving (eg, running due to panic, which would exacerbate the fire), particularly in crisis and without prior education regarding adaptive ways to respond. Attendee-generated examples, such as running, were used to demonstrate the importance of practicing and reinforcing skill development prior to a crisis, to ensure proficiency and optimal response. Additionally, in prompting consideration of one’s response tendencies, this exercise may engender empathy and understanding for veterans.

Skills training. Efforts to promote veteran engagement in court, facilitate motivation and readiness for change, and address barriers that arise (eg, distress associated with court appearances) may support successful and timely graduation. As such, skills training constituted the largest component of the training and drew from observations of court practices and the VTCs’ identified challenges. Consistent with the project’s aims and reported needs of the court, skills that target common presentations following trauma exposure (eg, avoidance, hypervigilance) were prioritized for this pilot training. Strategies included brief interventions from dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and motivational interviewing to strengthen the support provided by staff to veterans and address their needs (Table 2).

Training attendees also participated in exercises to reiterate skills. For example, attendees completed an ambivalence matrix using an audience-identified common behavior that is difficult to change (eg, heavy alcohol use as a coping mechanism for distress).

Attendees engaged in an exercise that involved identifying unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, targets for validation, and veteran strengths from a hypothetical case vignette. This vignette involved a VTC participant who initially engaged effectively but began to demonstrate difficulty appropriately engaging in court and mental health treatment as well as challenging interactions with VTC staff (eg, raised voice during court sessions, not respecting communication boundaries).

Pilot Test

Based on scheduling parameters communicated by court coordinators, the pilot training was designed as a presentation during times reserved for court staffing meetings. To accommodate court preferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one 90-minute training was conducted virtually in March 2022, and the other training was conducted in person in April 2022 for 2 hours. The trainings were facilitated by 2 VHA clinical psychologists and included the judge, court coordinator, VJO specialist, peer mentors, case managers, probation/parole officers, and community-based HCPs who partner with the court (eg, social workers, psychologists). About 12 to 15 professionals attended each training session.

Feedback

Feedback was solicited from attendees via an anonymous online survey. Seven participants completed the survey; the response rate of about 20% was consistent with those observed for other surveys of court professionals.²⁰ Many attendees also provided feedback directly to the facilitators. Feedback highlighted that the skills-based components not only were perceived as most helpful but also notably distinguished this training. “What set this training apart from other training events was the practical applications,” one attendee noted. “It was not just information or education, both instructors did an incredible job of explaining exactly how we could apply the knowledge they were sharing. They did this in such a way that it was easy to understand and apply.”

Specific skills were consistently identified as helpful, including managing intense emotions, addressing ambivalence, and approaching sanctions and rewards. Additionally, employing a less formal approach to the training, with relatable overviews of concepts and immediate responsiveness to requests for expansion on a topic, was perceived as a unique benefit: Another attendee appreciated that “It was beneficial to sit around a table with a less formal presentation and be able to ask questions.” This approach seemed particularly well suited for the program’s cross-disciplinary audience. Attendees reported that they valued the relatively limited focus on DSM-5 criteria. Attendees emphasized that education specific to veterans on evidence-based PTSD treatments, psychoeducation, and avoidance was very helpful. Respondents also recommended that the training be lengthened to a daylong workshop to accommodate greater opportunity to practice skills and consultation.

The consultation portion of the training provided insight into additional areas of importance to incorporate into future iterations. Identified needs included appropriate and realistic boundary setting (eg, addressing disruptions in the courtroom), suggestions for improving and expanding homework assigned by the court, and ways to address concerns about PTSD treatment shared by veterans in court (eg, attributing substance use relapses to the intensiveness of trauma-focused treatment vs lack of familiarity with alternate coping skills). Additionally, the VTC professionals’ desire to support mental health professionals’ work with veterans was clearly evident, highlighting the bidirectional value of interdisciplinary collaboration between VHA mental health professionals and VTC professionals.

Discussion

A trauma-informed training was developed and delivered to 2 VTCs in the Rocky Mountain region with the goal of providing relevant psychoeducation and introducing skills to bolster court practices that address veteran needs. Psychoeducational components of the training that were particularly well received and prompted significant participant engagement included discussions and examples of avoidance, levels of validation, language to facilitate motivation and address barriers, mechanisms underlying treatment, and potential functions underlying limited veteran treatment engagement. Distress tolerance, approaches to sanctions and rewards, and use of ambivalence matrices to guide motivation were identified as particularly helpful skills.

The pilot phase of this trauma-informed training provided valuable insights into developing mental health trainings for VTCs. Specifically, VTCs may benefit from the expertise of VHA HCPs and are particularly interested in learning brief skills to improve their practices. The usefulness of such trainings may be bolstered by efforts to form relationships with the court to identify their perceived needs and employing an iterative process that is responsive to feedback both during and after the training. Last, each stage of this project was strengthened by collaboration with VJO specialists, highlighting the importance of future collaboration between VJO and VHA mental health clinics to further support justice-involved veterans. For example, VJO specialists were instrumental in identifying training needs related to veterans’ clinical presentations in court, facilitating introductions to local VTCs, and helping to address barriers to piloting, like scheduling.

Modifications and Future Directions

The insights gained through the process of training design, delivery, and feedback inform future development of this training. Based on the feedback received, subsequent versions of the training may be expanded into a half- or full-day workshop to allow for adequate time for skills training and feedback, as well as consultation. Doing so will enable facilitators to further foster attendees’ familiarity with and confidence in their ability to use these skills. Furthermore, the consultation portion of this training revealed areas that may benefit from greater attention, including how to address challenging interactions in court (eg, addressing gender dynamics between court professionals and participants) and better support veterans who are having difficulty engaging in mental health treatment (eg, courts’ observation of high rates of dropout around the third or fourth session of evidence-based treatment for PTSD). Last, all attendees who responded to the survey expressed interest in a brief resource guide based on the training, emphasizing the need for ready access to key skills and concepts to support the use of strategies learned.

An additional future aim of this project is to conduct a more thorough evaluation of the needs and outcomes related to this trauma-informed training for VTC professionals. With the rapid growth of VTCs nationwide, relatively little examination of court processes and practices has occurred, and there is a lack of research on the development or effectiveness of mental health trainings provided to VTCs.²¹ Therefore, we intend to conduct larger scale qualitative interviews with court personnel and VJO specialists to obtain a clearer understanding of the needs related to skills-based training and gaps in psychoeducation. These comprehensive needs assessments may also capture common comorbidities that were not incorporated into the pilot training (eg, substance use disorders) but may be important training targets for court professionals. This information will be used to inform subsequent expansion and adaptation of the training into a longer workshop. Program evaluation will be conducted via survey-based feedback on perceived usefulness of the workshop and self-report of confidence in and use of strategies to improve court practices. Furthermore, efforts to obtain veteran outcome data, such as treatment engagement and successful participation in VTC, may be pursued.

Limitations

This training development and pilot project provided valuable foundational information regarding a largely unexamined component of treatment courts—the benefit of skills-based trainings to facilitate court practices related to justice-involved veterans. However, it is worth noting that survey responses were limited; thus, the feedback received may not reflect all attendees’ perceptions. Additionally, because both training sessions were conducted solely with 2 courts in the Rocky Mountain area, feedback may be limited to the needs of this geographic region.

Conclusions

A trauma-informed training was developed for VTCs to facilitate relevant understanding of justice-involved veterans’ needs and presentations in court, introduce skills to address challenges that arise (eg, motivation, emotional dysregulation), and provide interdisciplinary support to court professionals. This training was an important step toward fostering strong collaborations between VHA HCPs and community-based veterans courts, and feedback received during development and following implementation highlighted the perceived need for a skills-based approach to such trainings. Further program development and evaluation can strengthen this training and provide a foundation for dissemination to a broader scope of VTCs, with the goal of reducing recidivism risk among justice-involved veterans by promoting effective engagement in problem-solving court.

Veterans who interact with the criminal justice system (ie, justice-involved veterans) have heightened rates of mental health and psychosocial needs, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder, depression, suicidal ideation and attempt, and homelessness.^1,2 Alongside these criminogenic risk factors, recidivism is common among justice-involved veterans: About 70% of incarcerated veterans disclosed at least one prior incarceration.³

To address the complex interplay of psychosocial factors, mental health concerns, and justice involvement among veterans, veterans treatment courts (VTCs) emerged as an alternative to incarceration.⁴ VTC participation often consists of integrated treatment and rehabilitative services (eg, vocational training, health care), ongoing monitoring for substance use, graduated responses to address treatment adherence, and ongoing communication with the judge and legal counsel.⁴

A primary aim of these courts is to address psychosocial needs believed to underlie criminal behavior, thus reducing risk of recidivism and promoting successful recovery and community integration for eligible veterans. To do so, VTCs collaborate with community-based and/or US Department of Veterans Affairs services, such as the Veterans Justice Outreach program (VJO). VJO specialists identify and refer justice-involved veterans to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community care and serve as a liaison between VTC staff and VHA health care professionals (HCPs).⁵

VTC outcome studies highlight the importance of not only diverting veterans to problem-solving courts, but also ensuring their optimal participation. Successful graduates of VTC programs demonstrate significant improvements in mental health symptoms, life satisfaction, and social support, as well as lower rates of law enforcement interactions.^6,7 However, less is known about supporting those veterans who have difficulty engaging in VTCs and either discontinue participation or require lengthier periods of participation to meet court graduation requirements.⁸ One possibility to improve engagement among these veterans is to enhance court practices to best meet their needs.

In addition to delivering treatment, VHA mental health professionals may serve a critical interdisciplinary role by lending expertise to support VTC practices. For example, equipping court professionals with clinical knowledge and skills related to motivation may strengthen the staff’s interactions with participants, enabling them to address barriers as they arise and to facilitate veterans’ treatment adherence. Additionally, responsiveness to the impact of trauma exposure, which is common among this population, may prove important as related symptoms can affect veterans’ engagement, receptivity, and behavior in court settings. Indeed, prior examinations of justice-involved veterans have found trauma exposure rates ranging from 60% to 90% and PTSD rates ranging from 27% to 40%.^1,2 Notably, involvement with the justice system (eg, incarceration) may itself further increase risk of trauma exposure (eg, experiencing a physical or sexual assault in prison) or exacerbate existing PTSD.⁹ Nonetheless, whereas many drug courts and domestic violence courts have been established, problem-solving courts with a specialized focus on trauma exposure remain rare, suggesting a potential gap in court training.

VHA HCPs have the potential to facilitate justice-involved veterans’ successful court and treatment participation by coordinating with VJO specialists to provide training and consultation to the courts. Supporting efforts to effectively and responsively address criminogenic risk (eg, mental health) in VTC settings may in turn reduce the likelihood of recidivism.¹⁰ Given the elevated rates of trauma exposure among justice-involved veterans and the relative lack of trauma-focused VTCs, we developed a trauma-informed training for VTC professionals that centered on related clinical presentations of justice-involved veterans and frequently occurring challenges in the context of court participation.

Program Development

This educational program aimed to (1) provide psychoeducation on trauma exposure, PTSD, and existing evidence-based treatments; (2) present clinical considerations for justice-involved veterans related to trauma exposure and/or PTSD; and (3) introduce skills to facilitate effective communication and trauma-informed care practices among professionals working with veterans in a treatment court.

Prior to piloting the program, we conducted a needs assessment with VTC professionals and identified relevant theoretical constructs and brief interventions for inclusion in the training. Additionally, given the dearth of prior research on mental health education for VTCs, the team consulted with the developers of PTSD 101, a VHA workshop for veterans’ families that promotes psychoeducation, support, and effective communication.¹¹ Doing so informed approaches to delivering education to nonclinical audiences that interact with veterans with histories of trauma exposure. As this was a program development project, it was determined to be exempt from institutional review board review.

Needs Assessment

In the initial stages of development, local VJO specialists identified regional VTCs and facilitated introductions to these courts. Two of the 3 Rocky Mountain region VTCs that were contacted expressed interest in receiving trauma-informed training. Based on preliminary interest, the facilitators conducted a needs assessment with VJO and VTC staff from these 2 courts to capture requests for specific content and past experiences with other mental health trainings.

Guided by the focus group model, the needs assessments took place during three 1-hour meetings with VJO specialists and a 1-hour meeting with VJO specialists, VTC professionals, and community-based clinical partners.¹² Additionally, attending a VTC graduation and court session allowed for observations of court practices and interactions with veterans. A total of 13 professionals (judges, court coordinators, case managers, peer mentors, VJO specialists, and clinicians who specialize in substance use disorder and intimate partner violence) participated in the needs assessments.

The most critical need identified by court professionals was a focus on how to apply knowledge about trauma and PTSD to interactions with justice-involved veterans. This was reportedly absent from prior training sessions the courts had received. Both Rocky Mountain region VTCs expressed a strong interest in and openness to adapting practices based on research and practice recommendations. Additional requests that emerged included a refresher on psychoeducation related to trauma and how to address the personal impact of working with this population (eg, compassion fatigue).

Training Components

Based on the needs identified by VTC professionals and informed by consultation with the developers of PTSD 101,

Fostering court familiarity with cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure may bolster veteran engagement in treatment through regular reinforcement of skills and concepts introduced in therapy. This may prove particularly salient given the limited engagement with mental health treatment and elevated dropout rates from PTSD treatment among the general veteran population.^15,16

Exercises and metaphors were used to illustrate concepts in multiple ways. For example, training attendees engaged in a “stop, drop, and roll” thought exercise in which they were asked to brainstorm behavioral reactions to catching on fire. This exercise illustrated the tendency for individuals to revert to common yet unhelpful attempts at problem solving (eg, running due to panic, which would exacerbate the fire), particularly in crisis and without prior education regarding adaptive ways to respond. Attendee-generated examples, such as running, were used to demonstrate the importance of practicing and reinforcing skill development prior to a crisis, to ensure proficiency and optimal response. Additionally, in prompting consideration of one’s response tendencies, this exercise may engender empathy and understanding for veterans.

Skills training. Efforts to promote veteran engagement in court, facilitate motivation and readiness for change, and address barriers that arise (eg, distress associated with court appearances) may support successful and timely graduation. As such, skills training constituted the largest component of the training and drew from observations of court practices and the VTCs’ identified challenges. Consistent with the project’s aims and reported needs of the court, skills that target common presentations following trauma exposure (eg, avoidance, hypervigilance) were prioritized for this pilot training. Strategies included brief interventions from dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and motivational interviewing to strengthen the support provided by staff to veterans and address their needs (Table 2).

Training attendees also participated in exercises to reiterate skills. For example, attendees completed an ambivalence matrix using an audience-identified common behavior that is difficult to change (eg, heavy alcohol use as a coping mechanism for distress).

Attendees engaged in an exercise that involved identifying unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, targets for validation, and veteran strengths from a hypothetical case vignette. This vignette involved a VTC participant who initially engaged effectively but began to demonstrate difficulty appropriately engaging in court and mental health treatment as well as challenging interactions with VTC staff (eg, raised voice during court sessions, not respecting communication boundaries).

Pilot Test

Based on scheduling parameters communicated by court coordinators, the pilot training was designed as a presentation during times reserved for court staffing meetings. To accommodate court preferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one 90-minute training was conducted virtually in March 2022, and the other training was conducted in person in April 2022 for 2 hours. The trainings were facilitated by 2 VHA clinical psychologists and included the judge, court coordinator, VJO specialist, peer mentors, case managers, probation/parole officers, and community-based HCPs who partner with the court (eg, social workers, psychologists). About 12 to 15 professionals attended each training session.

Feedback

Feedback was solicited from attendees via an anonymous online survey. Seven participants completed the survey; the response rate of about 20% was consistent with those observed for other surveys of court professionals.²⁰ Many attendees also provided feedback directly to the facilitators. Feedback highlighted that the skills-based components not only were perceived as most helpful but also notably distinguished this training. “What set this training apart from other training events was the practical applications,” one attendee noted. “It was not just information or education, both instructors did an incredible job of explaining exactly how we could apply the knowledge they were sharing. They did this in such a way that it was easy to understand and apply.”

Specific skills were consistently identified as helpful, including managing intense emotions, addressing ambivalence, and approaching sanctions and rewards. Additionally, employing a less formal approach to the training, with relatable overviews of concepts and immediate responsiveness to requests for expansion on a topic, was perceived as a unique benefit: Another attendee appreciated that “It was beneficial to sit around a table with a less formal presentation and be able to ask questions.” This approach seemed particularly well suited for the program’s cross-disciplinary audience. Attendees reported that they valued the relatively limited focus on DSM-5 criteria. Attendees emphasized that education specific to veterans on evidence-based PTSD treatments, psychoeducation, and avoidance was very helpful. Respondents also recommended that the training be lengthened to a daylong workshop to accommodate greater opportunity to practice skills and consultation.

The consultation portion of the training provided insight into additional areas of importance to incorporate into future iterations. Identified needs included appropriate and realistic boundary setting (eg, addressing disruptions in the courtroom), suggestions for improving and expanding homework assigned by the court, and ways to address concerns about PTSD treatment shared by veterans in court (eg, attributing substance use relapses to the intensiveness of trauma-focused treatment vs lack of familiarity with alternate coping skills). Additionally, the VTC professionals’ desire to support mental health professionals’ work with veterans was clearly evident, highlighting the bidirectional value of interdisciplinary collaboration between VHA mental health professionals and VTC professionals.

Discussion

A trauma-informed training was developed and delivered to 2 VTCs in the Rocky Mountain region with the goal of providing relevant psychoeducation and introducing skills to bolster court practices that address veteran needs. Psychoeducational components of the training that were particularly well received and prompted significant participant engagement included discussions and examples of avoidance, levels of validation, language to facilitate motivation and address barriers, mechanisms underlying treatment, and potential functions underlying limited veteran treatment engagement. Distress tolerance, approaches to sanctions and rewards, and use of ambivalence matrices to guide motivation were identified as particularly helpful skills.

The pilot phase of this trauma-informed training provided valuable insights into developing mental health trainings for VTCs. Specifically, VTCs may benefit from the expertise of VHA HCPs and are particularly interested in learning brief skills to improve their practices. The usefulness of such trainings may be bolstered by efforts to form relationships with the court to identify their perceived needs and employing an iterative process that is responsive to feedback both during and after the training. Last, each stage of this project was strengthened by collaboration with VJO specialists, highlighting the importance of future collaboration between VJO and VHA mental health clinics to further support justice-involved veterans. For example, VJO specialists were instrumental in identifying training needs related to veterans’ clinical presentations in court, facilitating introductions to local VTCs, and helping to address barriers to piloting, like scheduling.

Modifications and Future Directions

The insights gained through the process of training design, delivery, and feedback inform future development of this training. Based on the feedback received, subsequent versions of the training may be expanded into a half- or full-day workshop to allow for adequate time for skills training and feedback, as well as consultation. Doing so will enable facilitators to further foster attendees’ familiarity with and confidence in their ability to use these skills. Furthermore, the consultation portion of this training revealed areas that may benefit from greater attention, including how to address challenging interactions in court (eg, addressing gender dynamics between court professionals and participants) and better support veterans who are having difficulty engaging in mental health treatment (eg, courts’ observation of high rates of dropout around the third or fourth session of evidence-based treatment for PTSD). Last, all attendees who responded to the survey expressed interest in a brief resource guide based on the training, emphasizing the need for ready access to key skills and concepts to support the use of strategies learned.

An additional future aim of this project is to conduct a more thorough evaluation of the needs and outcomes related to this trauma-informed training for VTC professionals. With the rapid growth of VTCs nationwide, relatively little examination of court processes and practices has occurred, and there is a lack of research on the development or effectiveness of mental health trainings provided to VTCs.²¹ Therefore, we intend to conduct larger scale qualitative interviews with court personnel and VJO specialists to obtain a clearer understanding of the needs related to skills-based training and gaps in psychoeducation. These comprehensive needs assessments may also capture common comorbidities that were not incorporated into the pilot training (eg, substance use disorders) but may be important training targets for court professionals. This information will be used to inform subsequent expansion and adaptation of the training into a longer workshop. Program evaluation will be conducted via survey-based feedback on perceived usefulness of the workshop and self-report of confidence in and use of strategies to improve court practices. Furthermore, efforts to obtain veteran outcome data, such as treatment engagement and successful participation in VTC, may be pursued.

Limitations

This training development and pilot project provided valuable foundational information regarding a largely unexamined component of treatment courts—the benefit of skills-based trainings to facilitate court practices related to justice-involved veterans. However, it is worth noting that survey responses were limited; thus, the feedback received may not reflect all attendees’ perceptions. Additionally, because both training sessions were conducted solely with 2 courts in the Rocky Mountain area, feedback may be limited to the needs of this geographic region.

Conclusions

A trauma-informed training was developed for VTCs to facilitate relevant understanding of justice-involved veterans’ needs and presentations in court, introduce skills to address challenges that arise (eg, motivation, emotional dysregulation), and provide interdisciplinary support to court professionals. This training was an important step toward fostering strong collaborations between VHA HCPs and community-based veterans courts, and feedback received during development and following implementation highlighted the perceived need for a skills-based approach to such trainings. Further program development and evaluation can strengthen this training and provide a foundation for dissemination to a broader scope of VTCs, with the goal of reducing recidivism risk among justice-involved veterans by promoting effective engagement in problem-solving court.

The two national emergency declarations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic will end May 11, President Joe Biden said on Jan. 30.

Doing so will have many effects, including the end of free vaccines and health services to fight the pandemic. The public health emergency has been renewed every 90 days since it was declared by the Trump administration in January 2020.

The declaration allowed major changes throughout the health care system to deal with the pandemic, including the free distribution of vaccines, testing, and treatments. In addition, telehealth services were expanded, and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program were extended to millions more Americans.

Biden said the COVID-19 national emergency is set to expire March 1 while the declared public health emergency would currently expire on April 11. The president said both will be extended to end May 11.

There were nearly 300,000 newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending Jan. 25, according to CDC data, as well as more than 3,750 deaths.

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The two national emergency declarations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic will end May 11, President Joe Biden said on Jan. 30.

Doing so will have many effects, including the end of free vaccines and health services to fight the pandemic. The public health emergency has been renewed every 90 days since it was declared by the Trump administration in January 2020.

The declaration allowed major changes throughout the health care system to deal with the pandemic, including the free distribution of vaccines, testing, and treatments. In addition, telehealth services were expanded, and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program were extended to millions more Americans.

Biden said the COVID-19 national emergency is set to expire March 1 while the declared public health emergency would currently expire on April 11. The president said both will be extended to end May 11.

There were nearly 300,000 newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending Jan. 25, according to CDC data, as well as more than 3,750 deaths.

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The two national emergency declarations dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic will end May 11, President Joe Biden said on Jan. 30.

Doing so will have many effects, including the end of free vaccines and health services to fight the pandemic. The public health emergency has been renewed every 90 days since it was declared by the Trump administration in January 2020.

The declaration allowed major changes throughout the health care system to deal with the pandemic, including the free distribution of vaccines, testing, and treatments. In addition, telehealth services were expanded, and Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program were extended to millions more Americans.

Biden said the COVID-19 national emergency is set to expire March 1 while the declared public health emergency would currently expire on April 11. The president said both will be extended to end May 11.

There were nearly 300,000 newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending Jan. 25, according to CDC data, as well as more than 3,750 deaths.

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The U.S. Surgeon General says 13 years old is too young to begin using social media.

Most social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook allow users to create accounts if they say they are at least 13 years old.

“I, personally, based on the data I’ve seen, believe that 13 is too early. ... It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, told CNN.

Research has shown that teens are susceptible to cyberbullying and serious mental health impacts from social media usage and online activity during an era when the influence of the Internet has become everywhere for young people.

According to the Pew Research Center, 95% of teens age 13 and up have a smartphone, and 97% of teens say they use the Internet daily. Among 13- and 14-year-olds, 61% say they use TikTok and 51% say they use Snapchat. Older teens ages 15-17 use those social media platforms at higher rates, with 71% saying they use TikTok and 65% using Snapchat.

“If parents can band together and say you know, as a group, we’re not going to allow our kids to use social media until 16 or 17 or 18 or whatever age they choose, that’s a much more effective strategy in making sure your kids don’t get exposed to harm early,” Dr. Murthy said.

A version of this article originally appeared on WebMD.com.

The U.S. Surgeon General says 13 years old is too young to begin using social media.

Most social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook allow users to create accounts if they say they are at least 13 years old.

“I, personally, based on the data I’ve seen, believe that 13 is too early. ... It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, told CNN.

Research has shown that teens are susceptible to cyberbullying and serious mental health impacts from social media usage and online activity during an era when the influence of the Internet has become everywhere for young people.

According to the Pew Research Center, 95% of teens age 13 and up have a smartphone, and 97% of teens say they use the Internet daily. Among 13- and 14-year-olds, 61% say they use TikTok and 51% say they use Snapchat. Older teens ages 15-17 use those social media platforms at higher rates, with 71% saying they use TikTok and 65% using Snapchat.

“If parents can band together and say you know, as a group, we’re not going to allow our kids to use social media until 16 or 17 or 18 or whatever age they choose, that’s a much more effective strategy in making sure your kids don’t get exposed to harm early,” Dr. Murthy said.

A version of this article originally appeared on WebMD.com.

The U.S. Surgeon General says 13 years old is too young to begin using social media.

Most social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook allow users to create accounts if they say they are at least 13 years old.

“I, personally, based on the data I’ve seen, believe that 13 is too early. ... It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships, and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, told CNN.

Research has shown that teens are susceptible to cyberbullying and serious mental health impacts from social media usage and online activity during an era when the influence of the Internet has become everywhere for young people.

According to the Pew Research Center, 95% of teens age 13 and up have a smartphone, and 97% of teens say they use the Internet daily. Among 13- and 14-year-olds, 61% say they use TikTok and 51% say they use Snapchat. Older teens ages 15-17 use those social media platforms at higher rates, with 71% saying they use TikTok and 65% using Snapchat.

“If parents can band together and say you know, as a group, we’re not going to allow our kids to use social media until 16 or 17 or 18 or whatever age they choose, that’s a much more effective strategy in making sure your kids don’t get exposed to harm early,” Dr. Murthy said.

A version of this article originally appeared on WebMD.com.