Understanding and mapping the psychosocial wellbeing support needs of veteran family members across the UK: a multi-methods study
Abstract: The UK Veterans Family Study (UKVFS) is a cross institutional, multi-stage, collaborative research project aimed at better understanding the psychosocial health and wellbeing needs of family members of veterans throughout the UK. This is the second report from the UK Veterans Family Study, examining help seeking and service use among veeran familes in the UK. It does so by firstly mapping the landscape of psychosocial wellbeing support provisions for family members of veterans across the UK.
Abstract: Context: In response to the opioid crisis, federal guidelines were implemented, including the Veterans Health Administration's (VA) Opioid Safety Initiative in 2013. The impact of policies on patients near the end of life is unknown. Objective: Examine temporal trends in opioid prescribing, pain, and opioid overdoses among Veterans near the end of life. Methods: Retrospective, time series analysis of VA decedents between October 2009 and September 2018 whose next-of-kin participated in VA's Bereaved Family Survey (BFS). Using multivariate regression to adjust for sociodemographic and clinical covariates, we examined temporal trends in outpatient opioid prescribing, uncontrolled pain based on BFS report, and opioid overdose-related hospitalizations, in the last month of life, overall and by clinical diagnosis (cancer versus non-cancer). Results: Among 79,409 decedents, mean daily outpatient opioid dose in morphine milligram equivalents in the last month of life decreased from 4.6 mg in 2010 to 2.1 mg in 2018 (adjusted change -0.20 mg/year; P