221: Lessons learned in conducting qualitative interviews to evaluate a community based veteran health pilot program

Introduction: The Building Veteran Healthy Community project aims to address veteran suicide prevention by improving community conditions that affect veteran health and well-being to create a veteran healthy community. The evaluation sought to understand barriers and facilitators associated with implementing a community-based pilot program to inform decisions about program design, sustainability, and scalability.

Methods: Qualitative interviews with twelve participants representing various entities across pilot program communities were conducted to understand and highlight their experiences in promoting veteran health within their community.

Results: Providing access to data to increase awareness of the problem and identify gaps, coordinating engagement activities, and facilitating structured conversations where community members led the decision making were key facilitators to building community capacity to inspire change and promote healthy veteran communities.

Conclusion: Interview findings highlight how the initiative can best support community-led efforts to address priorities that create positive changes that benefit veterans and their families.

Ellison Henry; Erika Redding; Vaughn Upshaw