mentorship in va conference... · • outcomes: pilot study shoes significant improvement for all 5...

Mentorship in VA:There’s so much to do! Why should I carve out time for mentorship?

AVAPL ECP Mentorship Program – Theresa Schmitz, PhD & Josh Rinker, PsyD

VA MH Mentorship Program – Stephen Holliday, PhD, ABPP-CN

National Center for PTSD Mentoring Program –Kelly Maieritsch, PhD

Local Facility Mentorship & Professional Development –Steven Shea, PhD

VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATIONVETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

Mentorship Across VA

• Why mentorship?

• AVAPL ECP Mentorship Program

• Mental Health Leadership Mentoring Program

• National Center for PTSD Mentoring Program

• Local Facility Mentorship & Fostering Professional Development


Mentorship: Signs You are in a Good Neighborhood

• Mentorship builds trust, strengthens communications, expands awareness, and improves your neighborhood (VA facility and VA system)

• Mentorship supports succession planning in mental health• Mentorship helps orient psychologists to the professional expectations of

VA, aids in transitions, and supports professional and leadership development

• Mentorship provides support and can normalize context • Mentorship can highlight inequities and help address them• Mentorship thrives in strong systems, and is integral in growing systems.

– Good mentors help you set measurable goals– Good mentors never let you settle and become complacent– Good mentors share personal experiences that inspire and motivate

Jacox, 2018


Looking for the helpers

• Mentors may lead the field as a subject matter expert, or may be excelling in an area of growth you desire to improve

• While your immediate supervisor may be tremendous, seek their input for mentorship recommendations to avoid potential dual relationships

• Mentors are committed to helping improve the system through these relationships

• Mentors can be formal or informal, within the organization or external


Won’t you be my mentor?

• Signs that a psychologist could benefit from mentorship– Being a psychologist!

– Burnout and fatigue

– Difficulty meeting goals with current resources

• Identifying specific mentorship needs– Formal skills vs informal guidance

• Tips for seeking out a mentor– Listservs, local resources, second- or third-degree relationships

– Be clear about the relationship

• Frequency/method of contact

• Is clinical or research content “out of bounds” in a leadership program?


AVAPL ECP Mentorship ProgramDrs. Theresa Schmitz and Josh Rinker

• History– Established by ECP workgroup in 2013

• Purpose of group– Informal mentorship, which allows mentee and mentor to define relationship

– More structured mentorship relationships include module or content based learning with specific, defined mentorship goals

• Match– Questionnaire – completed by both mentors and mentees, where each ranks their priorities

– Ranks are reviewed by ECP mentorship workgroup to establish mentorship pairs

– Mentorship relationship typically lasts between 6-12 months

• Support over the year– 2, 12, & 24 month follow-up surveys

– Mentorship blasts• Initiated during the 4th match to address feedback from previous participants who asked for additional

feedback from the workgroup over the course of the mentor relationship

• Topics have included “goal setting,” “maintaining good communication,” and “winding down a mentoring relationship”


AVAPL ECP Mentorship Program: The outcomes

▪ 5 matches to date– 148 total mentoring dyads– Mentees from first mentor match

include psychologists who now contribute to AVAPL such as three mentor workgroup members (Theresa Schmitz, Jessica Brundage, Jennifer O’Neil), ECP Workgroup co-chair (Paul Korte), a SIG leader (Ruth Varkovitzky), and AVAPL Secretary (Genevieve Davis)

– Two amazing mentors, Chris Watson and Steven Lovett, have participated in all FIVE matches!

▪ What have mentors and mentees found valuable about the program?

– Mentors▪ Bi-directionality of the

mentoring relationship▪ Additional perspective on the

ECP experience,▪ Supporting other psychologists

with a less formal power differential

– Mentees▪ Increased confidence to pursue

leadership positions and professional development goals

▪ Navigating a career in VA▪ Encouraging a healthy work/life

balance


AVAPL ECP Mentorship Program: The Future

• Future plans▪ Recently completed 5th mentor/mentee match

▪ Working with EC and SIGs to expand rankings to include SIG membership and coordinate with other SIG liaisons to extend program beyond ECPs

• Unified mentorship program in development across VA Psychology Leadership SIGs▪ Psychologists of Color and Allies SIG

▪ Women in Leadership SIG

▪ Telehealth SIG

▪ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender SIG

▪ Early Career SIG

Mental Health Leadership Mentoring Program

Presented by Stephen Holliday, PhD, ABPP-CN

Workgroup Members: Lisa Kearney (Chair), Jay Cohen, Clifford Smith, Jeffrey Burk, & David Carroll


Mental Health Leadership Mentoring ProgramContact: Dr. Lisa Kearney ([email protected] )

• Target Audience: New MH Chiefs or New Service Chiefs

• Next Class: Mentor applications due July/Mentees due August; 10/1 start

• Duration: 1 year with monthly meetings (optional site visit)

• Topic Areas: Learning Plans created based on five broad mentoring module areas:

1) Strategic Planning,

2) Human Resources,

3) Systems Understanding,

4) Administrative Operations,

5) Professional and Personal Development

• Resources: 360 degree evaluation; sharepoint with outlined module for each area with links to websites, PowerPoints, dashboards; optional site visit

• Outcomes: Pilot study shoes significant improvement for all 5 areas and improvement in employee satisfaction (Kearney, Smith, Carroll, Burk, Cohen, & Henderson, 2018)

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Ongoing Mentoring for One Year (5 Key Modules)

1. Strategic Planning

– Uniform Mental Health Services Handbook Implementation

– Strategic Planning Tools

– Systems Redesign

– Balancing Access and Sustainment to Care

– Suicide Prevention

2. Human Resources

– Hiring Staff

– Managing Staff

3. Systems Understanding

– Understanding VHA Organizational Structures

– Understanding VISN and Facility Organizational Structure10


Ongoing Mentoring for One Year (5 Key Modules)

4. Administrative Operations and Program Evaluation – Building Collaborative Relationships– Office Operations– MCA– Performance Measures– Mental Health Information System Dashboard– Productivity Measurement– VERA– Addressing Crises and Complaints– SAIL and the Mental Health Management System– No Show Follow-Up– Access

5. Professional and Personal Development– Ongoing Professional/Personal Development– Delegation– Time Management

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Learning Plan Development

• Each mentor-mentee team will select the portions of the modules most applicable to the unique needs/interests of each mentee to create an individualized learning plan.

• Modules are not presented in any particular order and may be placed in the order identified to be best for each mentee.

• Modules include:

– pre-work,

– talking points for mentor-mentee discussion, and

– application assignments

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Commitment Requirements

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For Mentors

• Commitment to at least one mentee for a 1 year period, with approximately 1-2 hours/month of time expected which includes a monthly meeting and review of pre-work materials

• Ability to make initial site visit, if desired

• Collaboration in creation of initial learning plan

• Monthly meetings by phone• Review of monthly assignments

For Mentees

• Commitment for a 1 year period, with approximately 1-2 hours/month of time expected which includes a monthly meeting and review of pre-work materials and an optional site visit

• Approval by facility to participate in program

• Collaboration in creation of initial learning plan

• Monthly meetings by phone• Completion of monthly

assignments

PTSD Mentoring Program

Kelly Maieritsch

Program

Director

Matt Yoder

National

Consultant

Sheila Barry

Program

Manager

VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION

PTSD Mentoring Program

• Initiated in 2008 in response to a recommendation by the PTSD Special Committee

• Goals

– Reduce variation in PTSD clinical outcomes through improved consistency in clinic operational procedures, better referral and treatment patterns, and shared best management practices

– Improve access to evidence-based PTSD specialty care

– To provide ongoing mentoring – Program Directors and PTSD Specialists

– To support use of empirical performance data

– To disseminate effective screening, assessment, and treatment practices to provide the best clinical services for Veterans


Program Structure and Participants

• Implementation infrastructure utilizing VISN

• VISN PTSD Mentors: ~ 2 Mentors for each VISN

– Facilitate VISN working groups and implementation efforts

• Mentees

– PTSD Specialty Program Leadership

– PTSD Specialists (50% time devoted to PTSD tx)

– Additional group attendees include:

• PTSD Residential leadership

• EBP Coordinators

• MST Coordinators

• Past participants in new leadership roles

PTSDMentoring

PTSDConsultation Program &

Lecture Series

PBI Network

PTSD MBC Community of Practice

VACO-OMHSP Program Offices

NEPECA Centers of Excellence

and MIRECC

SharePointDashboard

Email Group

National & VISN

Mentoring Calls

Face-to-FaceMeetings


2018 PTSD Mentoring Program Meeting

• Face-to-Face Meeting January 30-31, 2018 in Orlando

– Bring together participants from around the country (PCT and PTSD Residential Directors) to share strategies that improve access to quality care across the continuum and promote safety/suicide prevention

– Share findings from PERSIST trial and how clinics can better model “high reach” evidence-based psychotherapy clinics

– Focus on what clinic directors are required to do, how to leverage SAIL measures with leadership and what barriers we (NCPTSD) need to address


2018 Meeting Impact

1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00

Implementing a mechanism for employees to share program results broadly to leadership

Providing accurate and interpretable reports to leadership based upon the SAIL MH…

Utilizing SAIL Mental Health (MH) reports to confirm data are interpreted and/or…

Developing the clinic mission or purpose to increase the 5 aspects of High Reach Teams

Increasing therapists' buy-in for patient retention by implementing strategies to reduce…

Implementing clinic operations and procedures to facilitate EBP delivery including clear…

Implementing strategies locally that effectively increase access to care, ensure efficiency…

Creating opportunities for the team to share experiences of Measurement Based Care…

Identifying the points within clinic practice among the local programs where Shared…

Implementing effective strategies for ensuring safety during transitions between…

Regularly reviewing admission considerations when referring to a PTSD RRTP

Engaging team(s) in evidence-based practice (EBP) delivery

Focusing on the quality of mental health services for high risk patients

Maintaining communication with your REACH VET coordinator

Fig. 3.4: Mean Scores for Skill Application

3-Month

6-Month


2018 Meeting Impact

• “…I found this conference to be invaluable. I was able to network and receive guidance on how to start to increase PTSD services with the minimal resources I have.

• “SO MANY strategies - the workshop was enormously helpful! We need to have these workshops more frequently - if not annually. “

• “ I presented to the whole psychology team across the state about updates related to PTSD, so that culture can start to shift to provide more specialty care for PTSD populations. Used the meeting to meet with leadership to discuss starting a PCT.”


Mentorship & Support

• Yountville Pathway Home Shooting

• Negative Stakeholder Feedback

– Congressional inquiry

– Letters to Secretary

– News reports

– OIG

• Loss of staff and management of resources

• Implementation of changing policy

• Offer professional development for Program members including opportunities to:

– Speak at professional conferences

– Involvement in writing journal articles and book chapters

– Participation in national quality improvement and research projects


Mentorship and Support

• “The PTSD mentoring group has been instrumental to me in my new role as a PCT Program Manager. I feel inspired, supported, and that I am apart of an effort much greater than myself, our Veterans, and our facility. ”

• “…Countless supportive emails and phone calls along the way have meant so much to me and many Veteran’s.”

• “The team from the NCPTSD is first rate. I have reached out to them countless times for support, resources, and guidance.”

• “PTSD Mentoring program is vital in my role as a PCT Director and has been very influential in the design, mission, and the therapy focus of our PCT.”


Mentor Program Accomplishments

• Assisting with implementation of the revised 2017 VA/DoD PTSD Clinical Practice Guidelines.

• Played an instrumental role in implementing the Uniform Mental Health Services Handbook requirements for patients with PTSD and in the development of the VHA PTSD Directive.

• Developed and are supporting enterprise-wide utilization of a shortened NEPEC reporting form, decreasing administrative workload on PTSD clinicians.

• Developed an online training course for PCT leaders available through TMS.

• Assisted in the implementation of the Measurement-based Care Initiative, aimed at increasing the use of clinical data to inform clinical practice.

• Advocating for field-recommended updates to national metrics.

Local Facility Mentorship & Professional Development

Steven Shea, PhD


Even without a formal mentoring program, there are opportunities for informal mentoring.

Teach technical matters that are typically not taught

• Teaching how to look for jobs and how to do VA-recon.

• How to practice for PBIs.

• How to use VA and HR terminology.

• How to negotiate for jobs.

• Asking for recruitment and retention incentives; and what are the less typical incentives.

• How to make a good impression. Know SAIL, hot initiatives, and measures related to the position being pursued.

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Explain the big picture.

• Know the measures that are a proxy for success in your program.

• Explain how changes can impact organization - and cause other changes.

• Provide updates on VISN/VAMC management meetings and briefings – and what they mean to the organization, employees and patients.

• Give updates from APA, Div 18, AVAPL, and other professional organizations. Explain how and why those organizations are important to them.

• How do you know what the planned initiatives are and what’s coming?

• Invite younger or new-to-VA psychologists to your big-picture meetings or conference calls .

• Do a Lunch & Learn during the 1st Friday call.

• Offer to have them join you for the National Psychology Call or program specific calls (PC/MHI, MHRRTP, SUD, PTSD…).

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Impression management

• If you see something, give feedback. Address overly informal dress, appearance or behavior. And confirm what they are doing well.

• If someone is creating an inaccurate impression, let them know.

• Avoid the scofflaw lists.

• If the bosses have quirks that are landmines, let upcoming leaders know.

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Adding value

Get people involved in committees or workgroups. Consider tasks that are important but less popular: Chart reviews, accreditation prep, DBC, etc.

Teach to volunteer for projects, details, presentations, grand rounds, etc..

Do what is important to your boss and or makes them look good.

Again, avoid scofflaw lists.

Become one of those people who are on the minds of leadership when opportunities arrive.

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References

• Jacox, C. 2018. Three Reasons You Need a Mentor. Forbes Business Development Council CommityVoice.

• Flecker, S.A. 2014. Mr. Rogers’ Mentor. Pittmed magazine.

• Palmer, C. (2019). Becoming a great mentor. Monitor on Psychology (50) 1. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/cover-mentor

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/cover-mentor

mentorship in va conference... · • outcomes: pilot study shoes significant improvement for all 5...

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