WASHINGTON — Since September 2011, the Veterans Affairs Department has spent about $25 million on an advertising campaign that ask veterans to enroll in the department’s mental health programs. But some veterans’ groups question the effectiveness of the campaign.
The campaign, MakeTheConnection, promotes a website that shares stories of more than 100 veterans who suffered war-related mental health symptoms such as depression, substance abuse and suicide, and used VA resources to help. Veterans can customize the VA resources information they receive by selecting combat eras, services they were in and their symptoms.
In a 60-second video promoting the campaign, nine veterans, who fought in wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, send a message to millions of their comrades in the country.
The video, sponsored by the VA, went viral online after it was uploaded last October. So far, it has drawn more than 1.5 million views, or roughly 5,195 views per day.
The video served to showcase the campaign and delivered a core message – “Don’t suffer alone, you got to find that link with somebody that’ll make you let it go”, as one veteran said.
Another vet closes the video with: “It all starts with going to the VA. There’s a whole community of veterans that just want to help you out. It’s for the guys who couldn’t come back, so you owe it to them to live well.”
According to USASpending.gov, which tracks federal dollars, the VA’s Center for Acquisition awarded J.R. Reingold the $12.7-million contract after a full, open-competition bidding process.
In February this year, the contract was renewed for just under $12 million to continue working on the same campaign.
The MakeTheConnection contracts were the two biggest contracts the VA signed in the last decade, but neither J.R. Reingold nor the VA was able to provide statistics to show whether the campaign increased the number of veterans who vegan to use the VA services.
The VA said it provided “quality, specialty” mental health services to more than 1.3 million veterans in 2011, but did not explain if that was a direct result of the campaign.
The mega-million-dollar campaign reflects a tough issue the department faces: Many veterans don’t recognize that they have mental health issues or refuse to seek outside help, VA officials said.
Veterans’ groups share the VA’s concern about the need to reach veterans facing mental health issues, but were not sure that the advertising campaign was the best approach.
Dr. Tom Berger, executive director of the Veterans Health Council at the Vietnam Veterans of America, has extensive experience in veterans’ mental health issues. He identified a major problem with the campaign – it fails to engage those vets who are older and have limited knowledge of using technology.
Berger, a member of the VA’s Mental Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative Depression Executive Committee, argued that the VA’s focus should be on measuring the quality of care instead of just counting the claims.
Berger also said that the VA should do more evidence-based research on conditions such as post–traumatic stress disorder beforehand so advertising efforts can target more specific audiences.
In fact, mental health experts from both J.R. Reingold and the VA did the research for
MakeTheConnection, according to J.R. Reingold documents, but Berger said they need to work more closely with the veterans groups. For instance, they should work to standardize some terminology so there is less confusion during treatment, he said.
Meanwhile, with an increasing number of females in the military, some advocacy groups argue that though the VA needs to make a bigger effort to address their issues.
Rochelle Crump, president of National Women Veterans United and a former VA employee, said many women veterans refuse to visit the VA clinics because they don’t have many female physicians. The VA said it is providing new mental health clinics, better personnel training and primary care for female vets.
But not all veterans’ groups are critical of the MakeTheConnection campaign.
Jason Hansman, membership director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said advocacy groups need to work with VA on such campaigns.
IAVA, an eight-year-old nonprofit organizations that has more than 200,000 members, has mental health services similar to the VA’s and is using its own campaigns to encourage veterans to sign up, Hansman said.
“To evaluate, we track the number of veterans who sign up for our programs instead of counting the hits on our website,” said Hansman, “Our programs are cooperating with the VA’s, not competing with them.”
Jacob Gadd, deputy director of the American Legion’s Veteran Affairs and Rehabilitation division, seconded Hansman’s opinion, saying the number of veterans who applied for the VA’s mental health services has doubled since 2007.
“Veterans between ages of 40 and 60 are the fastest-growing group, and the best way to bring attention to them is to share their stories.” Gadd said.