Enhancing Access to Insomnia (EASI) Care: Implementing Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia in Primary Care Mental Health Integration Clinics

Chronic insomnia, one of the most common health problems among Veterans, significantly impacts health, function, and quality of life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) is the first line treatment; however, despite efforts to train VA clinicians to deliver CBTI, there are still significant barriers to providing adequate access to insomnia care. Up to 44% of Veterans seen in Primary Care report insomnia, making it an optimal clinical setting for improving access to insomnia care. Furthermore, Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia (BBTI), adapted from CBTI as a briefer, more flexible treatment, is easily delivered by Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) clinicians and can greatly improve access to care for Veterans with insomnia. Yet, simply training PCMHI clinicians to deliver BBTI is not enough. Implementation strategies are needed for successful uptake, adoption, and sustainable delivery of care.

This stepped-wedge, hybrid III implementation-effectiveness trial involves four VA Medical Centers: Baltimore, Durham, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia. The hybrid design allows for testing of implementation and treatment effectiveness. The stepped-wedge design allows for fewer sites to achieve adequate power as all sites are exposed to BBTI training (BBTI) and BBTI + Implementation Strategies (BBTI+IS). The target sample are PCMHI clinicians and the impact of a bundle of strategies on the success of sustainable delivery of BBTI in Primary Care. Retrospective data collected from VA electronic health records will be used to obtain variables of interest related to Veteran treatment outcomes and data related to PCMHI clinician delivery of BBTI.

We will compare the impact PCMHI clinicians trained to deliver BBTI vs. the impact of BBTI training plus 12-months of access to an implementation strategy bundle (BBTI+IS). BBTI+IS vs. BBTI training alone is expected to result in more Veterans with access to insomnia care in PCMHI. We will also compare delivery of BBTI across all four phases, from pre-training to post-implementation. We will also measure Veteran-level outcomes for insomnia severity and PCMHI clinician fidelity on delivery of BBTI.

Outcome measures have been updated to reflect study protocol and analyses more accurately. Some of the prespecified Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures have been combined with one removed due to no data collection. The results reported reflect data that has been collected and analyzed.