Integrative Mental Health Program
Integrative Mental Health is a national VA initiative that began in 2008 and aims to achieve a more collaborative system of care for the benefit of Veterans, Service members, and their families.
Mental Health Integration for Chaplain Services (MHICS) training is an educational offering for chaplains spanning three academic semesters. This training is born out of and has been developed by VA Integrative Mental Health during a decade of collaboration with the Department of Defense, VA National Chaplain Service, and multiple other partners. MHICS began with an intensive gap analysis of chaplain and mental health practices as part of the VA/DoD Integrated Mental Health Strategy, Strategic Action #23, providing an extensive empirical basis of input from VA/DoD chaplains, mental health professionals, and leadership. These findings significantly informed the development of MHICS.
- Mental Health Integration for Chaplain Services (MHICS) / Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Integrative Chaplaincy
- Bridging Mental Health and Chaplaincy Series
- Upstream suicide prevention
- Other: seminars, online resources, etc.
Overarching Project Goal
For faith communities and clergy to envision how they can address the barriers to veterans and persons with mental illness feeling welcomed and a part of their communities.
- Clergy/mental health training events (鈥淐ollaborating in Care: Ministry and Mental Health鈥�)
- Faith community engagement series (鈥淎 Place to Call Home鈥�)
- Collaboration with other VA programs
- Dynamic Diffusion Network
- Systems redesign (learning collaborative)
- Emphasis in this area as part of MHICS
- Partnerships/consultation with medical centers, collaborators, & grant-funded clinical projects
- Moral injury
- Mental health, religion, & spirituality
- Chaplain/mental health integration
- Spiritual assessment
- Suicide prevention
Contact Dr. Nieuwsma
Implementation Psychologist, IMH, VA Assistant Professor
Education Psychologist, IMH, VA Research Assistant Professor
