Mobile Peer-Mentoring: An Approach to Make Veterans Seek Mental Health-Care Support a Normality

Abstract

Abstract-Veterans often face great difficulties during the community and family reintegration after military deployment. Mental health problems resulting from war related traumatic experiences often make social readjustment very difficult. Many research suggests that peer-mentorship can be very effective for mental-health problems. Dryhootch (DH), a community organization led by veterans, has implemented a veteran peermentor program. The primary objective of DH program is to provide peer-mentor support to veterans going through social readjustment. In this paper we propose to expand DH's paperbased peer-mentor program with a mobile-based system, iPeer. The proposed expansion improves the efficiency of the current DH approach by augmenting the existing social process with mobile technologies used extensively by younger veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. We provide a description of the evolution of this mobile-based peer-mentor support tool through collaborative design research. We also present our initial usability findings in order to demonstrate the improved efficiency offered by the augmented technology.

Veterans Health and Well-Being—Collaborative Research Approaches: Toward Veteran Community Engagement

“…Early on, Dryhootch expressed an interest in developing a mobile mental health app designed to support veterans going through the peer mentorship process. Over several years, through a partnership with Marquette University’s Department of Computer Science, we developed the QRF app, actually two smartphone applications—one for veterans struggling with reintegration, and a second app that assists veteran peer mentors to monitor the progress of the veterans they assist (Rizia et al, 2014; Rizia, Franco, Hooyer, et al, 2015). This Special Issue emphasizes the importance of embedding veterans in every step of research efforts, what we have referred to as not just community engagement, but moving toward “community collaborative design” of systems, interventions, and research.…”

Anesthesia in the modern world of apps and technology: Implications and impact on wellness

“…However, due to the app's anonymous nature and lack of outcome studies, it is currently unclear to what extent users have benefited from this intervention. Outside of healthcare, peer‐mentoring in veterans using a mobile‐based peer‐mentor support tool has had positive outcomes, 30 suggesting potentially unrealized opportunities in anesthesia.…”

“Institutions Don’t Hug People:” A Roadmap for Building Trust, Connectedness, and Purpose Through Photovoice Collaboration

“…Uptake of CEnR approaches within VA-funded research has been somewhat slower compared with other federal agencies such as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Sheridan, Schrandt, Forsythe, Hilliard, & Paez, 2017). Over the past 10 years, however, several academic–community research teams around the country, including our own, have collaborated on research focused on diverse health topics such as increasing access to postdeployment mental health services (Franco, Hooyer, et al, 2016; Franco, Logan, et al, 2016; Kirchner, Farmer, Shue, Blevins, & Sullivan, 2011; Rizia et al, 2014; True, Rigg, & Butler, 2015); using narrative methods to explore impacts of trauma (Hooyer, 2017; Hooyer & Kasza, 2018); and improving engagement in care for women Veterans (Hamilton et al, 2017). More recently, HSR&D—the branch of VA research focusing on translating research findings into clinical practice and health care policy—has increased its investment in engagement activities involving Veterans and their family members (whom we refer to as caregivers) as consultants or partners in the research process.…”