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ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

• VA offers a wide range of mental health

services to Veterans. The goal of VA mental 

health care is to support recovery and 

enable Veterans who experience mental 

health problems to live meaningful lives 

in their communities and achieve their full 

potential.

• VA aims to provide coordinated care for

the whole person, not just for the person’s 

mental illness. The department promotes 

the idea that having a healthy body, 

satisfying work, and supportive family and 

friends are integral to mental health. 

• All Veterans who receive specialty mental

health care have mental health treatment 

coordinators to help them define and work 

toward their overall mental health goals.

• Mental health services are available

in VA’s mental health specialty clinics, 

primary care clinics, nursing homes, and 

residential care facilities. Those with 

serious mental health problems may 

take part in specialized programs such as 

mental health intensive case management, 

day centers, work programs, and 

psychosocial rehabilitation. 

• Emergency mental health care is available

24 hours a day, seven days a week at VA 

medical centers. Facilities that do not have 

24-hour emergency rooms must provide 

emergency services through a local nonVA hospital.

• Veterans thinking about hurting or

killing themselves or others, experiencing 

an emotional crisis, feeling hopeless or 

engaging in self-destructive behavior such 

as drug abuse, should call the Veterans 

Crisis Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Press 1 

for Veterans. 

• The area of mental health is covered in

several other VA fact sheets as well as this 

one, including Depression, Posttraumatic 

Stress Disorder (PTSD), Substance Use 

Disorders, and Suicide Prevention.

VA RESEARCH ON MENTAL 

HEALTH: OVERVIEW

• VA researchers are looking at potential

new approaches for treating and 

preventing mental health disorders. They 

are also working on related projects such 

as developing and evaluating collaborative 

primary care models, and improving access 

to services from rural and other remote 

areas by using the Internet and other 

technologies.

• Among the areas VA researchers are

focusing on are mood disorders, such as 

depression and bipolar disorder; psychotic 

disorders, such as schizophrenia; PTSD and 

other anxiety conditions; and substance 

use disorders. 

• VA investigators are also looking at the

co-occurrence of mental health issues 

and physical disorders—for instance, 

depression in those with spinal cord 

injury, or substance abuse in patients with 

chronic pain.

• The National Research Action Plan is a

wide-reaching plan developed in 2013 by 

VA and the departments of Defense; Health 

and Human Services; and Education. 

The plan is designed to improve access 

to mental health services for Veterans, 

service members, and military families. 

Implementation of the plan will improve 

scientific understanding of PTSD, traumatic 

brain injury (TBI), various co-occurring 

conditions, and suicide. Other goals of the 

plan include providing effective treatments 

for these diseases, and reducing their 

occurrence.

• VA’s 15 Mental Illness Research, Education,

and Clinical Centers (MIRECCs) were 

established by Congress with the goal of 

researching the causes and treatments of 

mental disorders, and using education to 

put new knowledge into routine clinical 

practice in VA. Specialized mental health 

centers of excellence are an essential part 

of VA’s ability to meet Veterans’ mental 

health needs.

VA research on 

MENTAL HEALTH

According to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use 

and Health, an estimated 43.8 million adults had a mental 

illness in 2014 (not including substance use disorders), 

representing about 18 percent of all U.S. adults.

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VA investigators are looking at the co-occurrence of 

mental health issues and physical disorders—for 

instance, depression in those with spinal cord injury, 

or substance abuse in patients with chronic pain.

SELECTED MILESTONES AND 

MAJOR EVENTS

1941 - Set up a research lab in 

Northport, New York, to conduct 

clinical and biomedical research in 

neuropsychiatric disorders

1989 - Created the National Center for 

PTSD to address the needs of Veterans 

and other trauma survivors with 

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

1997 - Identified a gene associated with 

a major risk for schizophrenia

2003 - Determined that while atypical 

antipsychotic drugs vary in cost, there 

is limited evidence of differences in 

effectiveness

2006 - Developed, through VA’s 

TIDES project, an evidence-based 

collaborative approach to depression 

management

2013 - Determined an association 

between homelessness among Veterans 

and childhood problems such as abuse 

and family instability

2015 - Found that a loss of gray matter 

in three separate brain structures 

is common across a spectrum of 

psychiatric disorders widely perceived 

to be distinct

RECENT STUDIES: SELECTED 

HIGHLIGHTS

• There are 108 genetic locations 

where the DNA of people with 

schizophrenia tends to differ from 

those who do not have the disease. 

An international study in which VA 

researchers took part analyzed DNA 

from nearly 37,000 people in Europe and 

Asia with schizophrenia, and more than 

113,000 without the disease. While most 

of the genes implicated in the study are 

expressed in the brain, others appear 

to play a role in the body’s immune 

system, supporting a link between the 

immune system and schizophrenia. 

About three-quarters of the genetic 

locations identified in the study had not 

been previously reported. (Nature,

July 24, 2014)

• Providing additional doses of 

the hormone oxytocin through a 

nasal spray may help those with 

schizophrenia. Researchers from 

the VA Desert Pacific Mental Illness 

Research, Education, and Clinical 

Center and the University of California, 

Los Angeles, provided 27 men with 

schizophrenia with either oxytocin or a 

placebo once a week for 12 weeks. All of 

the participants were also given training 

on social cognitive skills, including the 

ability to identify facial emotions, social 

perception, and empathy. The team 

found that the group receiving oxytocin 

did significantly better than the group 

receiving a placebo in the area of 

“empathic accuracy”—understanding 

how others feel when they show 

emotion. (Neuropsychopharmacology,

Aug. 2014) 

• The health of older men is 

particularly vulnerable to stressors, 

and these stressors can contribute 

to a shorter life, according to a VA and 

Oregon State University team. Of 1,293 

older men in the study, those whose 

daily life was significantly stressful 

were three times more likely to die in a 

15-year period than those who found 

their lives to be not very stressful, or 

only moderately stressful. (Experimental 

Gerontology, November 2014)

For more information on VA studies 

on mental health and other key topics 

relating to Veterans’ health, please 

visit www.research.va.gov/topics

MENTAL HEALTH

Updated September 2016 • For a digital version of this fact sheet with active links to sources, visit www.research.va.gov/topics