Table 1.

Clinical partnership projects

Project	Project Overview	Design	Project Integrity
1	Investigate whether veterans who used the buddy system (a) improved adherence with medications and medical appointments and/or (b) found increased satisfaction with mental health services.	Quasi-experimental, pre-/post design with a control group N = 39 mental healthcare recipients over three months	Significant design changes; data collection delayed due to administrative requirements; difficulty recruiting subjects
2	Investigate the effectiveness of a brief group intervention to improve combat veterans' engagement in PTSD treatment by increasing awareness about the need to change. The study compared intervention and control groups on process and outcome measures.	Quasi-experimental, pre-/post design with a control group N = 157; 12 month follow-up	No major design changes; data fully collected; Moderate follow-up, with data on all 157 between 3 to 12 months (115 with full 12 months); Project ceased and team members relocated due to Hurricane Katrina.
3	Investigate effect of cognitive behavioral therapy to improve veterans' treatment adherence and improved family involvement in care between veterans randomly assigned to low- and high-reinforcement groups.	Quasi-experimental, pre-/post design with a control group N = 100 over two years	Target n-size reached at baseline, but follow-up incomplete; no major design changes
4	Investigate an intervention that supplemented normal appointment scheduling with additional care to improve mental health patient treatment adherence and reduce no-show rates in a community-based outpatient clinic.	Quasi-experimental, pre-/post design with a control group N = 601 and 208, for two cohorts of mental healthcare recipients	Project was scaled back from initial plan; Most data collected as planned; National VA policy change resulted in contamination between groups