# Improving Primary Care Anxiety Treatment Engagement and Effectiveness

> **NIH VA IK2** · SYRACUSE VA  MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Primary Care-Mental Health Integration (PC-MHI), in which mental health care is provided within
primary care (PC), is an integral component of whole-person PC provided by VHA Patient Aligned Care Teams
(PACT). Anxiety disorders and subthreshold symptoms are prevalent and burdensome among PC patients, yet
anxiety is under-treated, suggesting a need to improve current PC services for anxiety. PC-MHI is an ideal
context in which to provide anxiety treatment, but effective, evidence-based anxiety interventions that are (a)
designed for the scope and format of PC-MHI care, (b) effective, (c) Veteran-centered, and (d) able to
accommodate a variety of anxiety presentations (with or without comorbid depression) are needed. The
ultimate goal of this research is to develop a brief anxiety intervention that will be acceptable to Veterans and
feasible for providers to implement in the PC-MHI setting. Adapting elements of evidence-based treatments
into an intervention designed specifically for the PC-MHI setting and to appeal to Veterans can help to improve
PC anxiety treatment engagement and effectiveness, consistent with the goals of the VHA Blueprint for
Excellence. Incorporating Veterans’ treatment preferences into intervention development will enhance the
patient-centeredness of care to ultimately improve treatment engagement. Incorporating providers’
perspectives on challenges in implementing evidence-based treatment in the unique PC-MHI setting will help
ensure that the intervention is feasible to implement in real-world clinical practice.
 Dr. Robyn Shepardson is an early career clinical research psychologist at the Center for Integrated
Healthcare (CIH), a VHA Mental Health Center of Excellence charged with improving Veteran healthcare
through PC-MHI. The purpose of this Career Development Award-2 (CDA-2) is to facilitate Dr. Shepardson’s
transition into an independent HSR&D investigator with a long-term objective of increasing engagement in, and
effectiveness of, evidence-based, Veteran-centered interventions for common mental health concerns within
PC-MHI. The short-term objective of this CDA-2 is to obtain formal training, expert mentorship, and research
experience to facilitate a VHA HSR&D career focused on improving PC anxiety treatment options for Veterans.
The CDA-2 will provide Dr. Shepardson with needed training in (1) health services research methods, (2) brief
interventions for anxiety and depression, (3) mixed methods with a focus on qualitative research, (4)
implementation science with a focus on hybrid effectiveness-implementation trials, and (5) grantsmanship,
which will allow her to successfully conduct the three sequential projects comprising the CDA-2 research plan.
 Aim 1, informed by pilot data indicating low rates of using numerous evidence-based anxiety treatment
techniques among PC-MHI providers, will be a qualitative study to examine providers’ usual care practices and
decision-making (particularly choices to use or not use va...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10308528
- **Project number:** 5IK2HX002107-05
- **Recipient organization:** SYRACUSE VA  MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBYN LEANNE SHEPARDSON
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10308528

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10308528, Improving Primary Care Anxiety Treatment Engagement and Effectiveness (5IK2HX002107-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10308528. Licensed CC0.

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