| Recipient: | Mood Disorders Society of Canada |
|---|---|
| Project: | Investigation of the Impact of the Project Trauma Support Program on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury in Veterans in Canada |
| Province: | Ontario |
| Period: | Fiscal year 2018-2019 |
| Funding: | $741,618 |
Overview:
Mood Disorders Society of Canada is a private mental-health organization whose mandate is to forge and maintain meaningful and sustained partnerships with public, private, and non-profit organizations within Canada in order to champion the cause of mental well-being.
Project Goals:
The goals for this project were:
- To investigate the impact of the Project Trauma Support program on Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Moral Injury (MI);
- To study the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) on well-being (quality of life, relationships, social integration, housing, health, employment and other meaningful activity, finances and life skills); and
- To capture participant perspectives regarding how the program might be improved.
Project Activities:
To address the project’s goals, the following activities were completed:
- Quantitative Data Collection: Participants completed questionnaires related to their mental health pre and post participation in the PTS program.
- Qualitative Data Collection: Participants completed phone interviews focused on the impact and effectiveness of the program, and their perspectives of how the program might be improved.
- Realist Evaluation: The evaluation explored how the program worked, for whom, when, where, and how, and will inform ongoing development of the program.
- Knowledge Translation: Included ongoing key stakeholder engagement, conference presentations, publications in peer-reviewed journals (ongoing) and report writing.
Project Results:
The following outcomes were achieved:
- Military members and Veterans had statistically significant changes in their self-reported PTSD, depression, anxiety and MI scores between starting and completing the PTS program.
- Participants qualitatively noted an improvement in their overall wellbeing and quality of life.
- Military members and Veterans longitudinally (1, 3, 6, and 12-months post-completion of the PTS program) maintained the positive mental health gained from PTS, but did not progress further in a reduction of symptom scores.
- Many participants continued to reach the clinical threshold for PTSD, major depression disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and MI.
- No differences between active-duty military members and Veterans were found in either the quantitative or qualitative results.
- Differences were noted in both the quantitative and qualitative results between males and females participating in the PTS program.