Preliminary Perceived Access Inventory (PAI) for Veterans Affairs (VA) Mental Health Service Users
| Items 1–34 and 43 | |
| Part 1: (administered to all respondents) | |
| “In the past 12 months, …” [insert item stem from list below] | |
| Yes | 1 |
| No | 0 |
| Part 2: (administered only to respondents who respond “Yes” in Part 1a) | |
| “How much did that interfere with getting the VA mental healthcare you needed?” | |
| Completely | 5 |
| A great deal | 4 |
| Somewhat | 3 |
| A little bit | 2 |
| Not at all | 1 |
| Item | Item Stem: “In the past 12 months …” |
| 1 | … Did you have to travel a long distance to get VA mental healthcare? |
| 2 | … Was transportation to VA mental healthcare a problem for you? |
| 3 | … Did you have to spend a lot of money on travel to get to VA mental healthcare? |
| 4 | … Did you lose income because of taking time off from work to get VA mental healthcare? |
| 5 | … Did your VA mental health facility have clinic hours on evenings or weekends? |
| 6 | … Did your VA mental health facility have convenient appointment times? |
| 7 | … Did you have to spend a lot of money overall to get VA mental healthcare? |
| 8 | … Did you have to spend a lot of time in the waiting room before your VA mental health appointments? |
| 9 | … Did you have to wait a long time between your VA mental health appointments? |
| 10 | … Have you felt that your VA mental health appointments were short? |
| 11b | … Did you have to wait a long time to get that first VA mental health appointment? |
| 12 | … Did any of your VA mental healthcare providers lack knowledge of military culture? |
| 13 | … Did you ever feel that you should just “tough it out” and not seek mental healthcare? |
| 14 | … Did you ever feel that you were weak because you might need the help of a mental healthcare provider? |
| 15 | … Did you notice differences in cultural, religious or personal valaes between yourself and your VA mental healthcare providers? |
| 16 | … Did you have problems getting in touch with your VA mental healthcare providers between appointments? |
| 17 | … Did you get reminder calis about your VA mental health appointments? |
| 18 | … Did any of your VA mental healthcare providers fail to take your mental health problems seriously? |
| 19 | … Did any of your VA mental healthcare providers fail to ask for your opinion about treatment options? |
| 20 | … Were you able to see the same VA mental healthcare providers consistently over time? |
| 21 | … Did you have to repeat your story to new VA mental healthcare providers over and over? |
| 22 | … Did you ever feel that your VA mental healthcare providers did not genuinely care about you? |
| 23 | … Did you ever feel that VA mental healthcare staff did not genuinely care about you? |
| 24 | … Did you ever feel stuck in VA “red tape” or paperwork? |
| 25 | … Did you ever need to find childcare so that you could get to a VA mental health appointment? |
| Item | Item Stem: “In the past 12 months 12 months …” |
| 26 | … Have you felt comfortable that you were aware of all the VA mental health Services that were available to you? |
| 27 | … Did you notice any problems with the military and VA sharing medical records concerning your mental healthcare? |
| 28 | … Did you ever lack trust in any of your VA mental healthcare providers? |
| 29 | … Did you ever lack trust in the VA healthcare system? |
| 30 | … Have you ever felt that your VA mental healthcare providers were not available to you as soon as you needed them? |
| 31 | … Have any of your VA mental healthcare providers failed to show you respect? |
| 32 | … Have any of the VA mental healthcare staff failed to show you respect? |
| 33c | When you go to the VA, do you see other Veterans who you feel you can share your experiences with? |
| 34 | … Did you think your right to own a gun might be taken away if you used VA mental health Services? |
| 43c,d | Considering all the technologies we’ve just discussed, have you had any concerns about your privacy when using these technologies for your mental healthcare? The technologies are My HealtheVet, smart phone apps, televideo, telephone, internet chat rooms, or searching the internet. |
| Items 35–42: | |
| Part 1: “Have you ever …” [insert item stem from list below] | |
| Yes | |
| No | |
| Part 2: If “Yes” to Part 1, ask: “When you did, was it/were they helpful?” | |
| Yes | |
| No | |
| If “No” to Part 1, ask: “Do you have access to …” [insert item stem from list below] | |
| Yes | |
| No | |
| Item | Item Stem: “Have you ever …” |
| 35 | … Used My HealtheVet to share information with your VA mental healthcare providers? |
| 36 | … Used secure messaging, which is a feature of My HealtheVet that lets you exchange messages online with your mental healthcare providers? |
| 37 | … Used smart phone apps related to your mental healthcare? |
| 38 | … Used televideo at a VA outpatient clinic, which is using a camera on a TV or computer screen at a clinic to talk with VA mental healthcare providers at another facility? |
| 39 | … Used televideo at home, which is using a camera on a TV or computer screen at home to talk with VA mental healthcare providers? |
| 40 | … Used Internet chat rooms to share information online with Veterans or other people about specific issues related to your mental healthcare? |
| 41 | … Met with any of your VA mental healthcare providers by telephone? |
| 42 | … Searched the internet for information related to your mental healthcare? |
a
For Items 5, 6, 17, 20, and 26, only respondents who respond “No” in Part 1 continue to Part 2.
b
Item 11 includes a prescreening question, “Did youhave your first VA mental health appointment in the past 12 months?” Only those who respond “Yes” proceed to Part 1 of the item.
c
Items 33 and 43 do not start with the clause “In the past 12 months.”
d
Item 43 includes a follow-up free-response question, “Which technologies have caused you the most concern about your mental healthcare privacy?”