Evolution of a national mentoring and implementation program to improve care delivery for posttraumatic stress...

The U.S. Veterans Health Administration launched a national mentoring program for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2008 to support the delivery of evidence-based psychotherapies by bridging mental health operations and frontline clinical care. This article describes the program's evolution and indicators of its success. Program leadership clarified roles and responsibilities for involved staff, developed a unified set of expectations for high-quality PTSD specialty care, leveraged administrative data to support context-specific data monitoring and feedback systems, and partnered with researchers to identify and evaluate implementation strategies that were subsequently integrated into program operations. These changes were associated with an increase in the mean (SD) proportion of psychotherapy patients receiving an evidence-based psychotherapy for PTSD within PTSD clinical teams from 26.5% (SD = 15.6%) to 40.5% (SD = 14.1%), a reduction in the proportion of PTSD teams with low evidence-based psychotherapy reach from 29% (33/113) to <2% (2/119), and an increase in the median and interquartile range level of measurement-based care from 22% (interquartile range = 27%) to 36% (interquartile range = 22%). Bridging programs that adopt tailored implementation strategies may provide the support needed to ensure uptake of evidence-based practices and sustainment of changes over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).