According to the EBP training protocol for VAs, these are the "roll-outs" listed: CPT or PE for PTSD, ACT or CBT for depression, SST (social skills training) for SMI (serious mental illness), CBT-I for insomnia, behavior couples therapy (BCT-SUD) or CBT-SUD or motivation enhancement therapy (MET) for substance abuse, and MI for treatment engagement. According to the EBP training schedule though, they also have IPT for depression.
No sign of DBT or what to do with suicide prevention, atleast where I am looking- and I was hoping to get some additional EBP training today and haven't had any luck finding what I want, so I will have to go old-fashioned to some EBP manuals (non-veteran focused).
Personally, I think that the meds had nothing to do with his suicide - as his note said he was going to do it somehow. Reminds me of this recent suicide in the news article:
http://kxan.com/2015/03/02/teen-gir...ter-for-encouraging-friend-to-commit-suicide/ I think people are eager to find blame when something so tragic happens, unfortunately. But sometimes it can lead to policy changes and commitment of VA employees to work harder to make sure veterans don't fall through the cracks. I definitely think VA hospitals are more diligent than regular hospitals, especially after all this media and critcism... but then again each VA is so very different. It does sound though like there was some negligence there and he shouldn't have been prescribed so many meds in one day by 2 different prescribing providers, who must not have read his charts. Is there a policy that says providers HAVE to read charts and communicate with all other providers for patients? Nope, not that I know of. But this MAYBE could have saved his life, not because of the meds, but if his doctors recognized the warning signs and got him immediate help, even more so, had someone gotten him some EBP for depression/suicide/PTSD/whatever his primary concern of the moment happened to be. Unfortunately, I've had physicians ask me to do a suicide risk assessment in primary care because they don't know how to handle mental health concerns, when technically everyone at a VA is initially trained in suicide prevention. Thankfully, they were refreshed on suicide prevention rather than me or someone else do it for them.