# A Randomized Controlled Trial of Coaching into Care with VA-CRAFT to Promote Veteran Engagement in PTSD Care

> **NIH VA I01** · VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS · 2020 · —

## Abstract

Impact: Family members are primary sources of support for Veterans struggling with PTSD. While family
support and encouragement are powerful facilitators of Veterans’ mental health care engagement, few
interventions have been developed that capitalize on this support. To address this gap, VA created Coaching
Into Care (CIC) – a national telephone-based coaching service intended to educate, support, and empower
family members and friends who are seeking services for a Veteran. While program evaluation data show that
CIC is highly valued by callers, only about 25% of callers with Veterans not already in care, report that their
Veteran sought care over the next six months. The proposed study tests an innovative approach to improve
the effectiveness of CIC by integrating a web program called VA Community Reinforcement and Family Training
(VA-CRAFT), which is based on an empirically-validated intervention. The long-term goal is to establish an
efficacious, efficient, scalable, and satisfying family outreach intervention that will significantly increase mental
health service initiation among a high priority Veteran population while addressing the needs of their primary
supporters, their family members.
Background: PTSD is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder among combat Veterans that often results in
significant individual impairment and distress for family members. Although evidence-based treatments are
available, most Veterans with PTSD do not receive any mental health care. Preliminary work suggests that
VA’s Coaching Into Care services could be improved by integrating VA-CRAFT. In a prior HSR&D-funded pilot,
our team found that family members who completed the relatively brief VA-CRAFT course alone (without
coaching) had greater decreases in caregiver burden than wait-list controls. However, qualitative interviews
also suggested that participants often did not raise the issue of treatment with their Veteran due to not believing
such a conversation would be successful. Therefore, we developed CIC+VA-CRAFT to leverage the strengths
of both approaches to increase family members’ motivation, perceived ability to have treatment-seeking
conversations with their Veteran, and success at engaging their Veterans in care. Initial findings from an NC-
PTSD-funded pilot of CIC+VA-CRAFT suggest that this brief, blended intervention is feasible, acceptable, and
potentially more effective than CIC alone in enhancing Veteran mental health treatment initiation.
Objectives: This project will employ a two-group randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare CIC+VA-
CRAFT to CIC only (treatment as usual). Specific aims are to: 1) Determine the effectiveness of CIC+VA-
CRAFT in enhancing Veterans’ mental health service initiation compared to CIC only; 2) Determine if CIC+VA-
CRAFT is non-inferior to CIC only on caller satisfaction, and 3) Conduct a process evaluation to inform potential
future implementation of CIC+VA-CRAFT. The project will also explore potential 1) ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9950757
- **Project number:** 1I01HX002955-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS ADMIN PALO ALTO HEALTH CARE SYS
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric Roland Kuhn
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9950757

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9950757, A Randomized Controlled Trial of Coaching into Care with VA-CRAFT to Promote Veteran Engagement in PTSD Care (1I01HX002955-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9950757. Licensed CC0.

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