Final Report Summary: Mood Disorders Society of Canada

Recipient: Mood Disorders Society of Canada
Project: Investigation of the Impact of the Project Trauma Support Program on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury in Veterans in Canada
Province: Ontario
Period: Fiscal year 2018-2019
Funding: $741,618

Overview:

Mood Disorders Society of Canada is a private mental-health organization whose mandate is to forge and maintain meaningful and sustained partnerships with public, private, and non-profit organizations within Canada in order to champion the cause of mental well-being.

Project Goals:

The goals for this project were:

  • To investigate the impact of the Project Trauma Support program on Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Moral Injury (MI);
  • To study the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) on well-being (quality of life, relationships, social integration, housing, health, employment and other meaningful activity, finances and life skills); and
  • To capture participant perspectives regarding how the program might be improved.

Project Activities:

To address the project’s goals, the following activities were completed:

  • Quantitative Data Collection: Participants completed questionnaires related to their mental health pre and post participation in the PTS program.
  • Qualitative Data Collection: Participants completed phone interviews focused on the impact and effectiveness of the program, and their perspectives of how the program might be improved.
  • Realist Evaluation: The evaluation explored how the program worked, for whom, when, where, and how, and will inform ongoing development of the program.
  • Knowledge Translation: Included ongoing key stakeholder engagement, conference presentations, publications in peer-reviewed journals (ongoing) and report writing.

Project Results:

The following outcomes were achieved:

  • Military members and Veterans had statistically significant changes in their self-reported PTSD, depression, anxiety and MI scores between starting and completing the PTS program.
  • Participants qualitatively noted an improvement in their overall wellbeing and quality of life.
  • Military members and Veterans longitudinally (1, 3, 6, and 12-months post-completion of the PTS program) maintained the positive mental health gained from PTS, but did not progress further in a reduction of symptom scores.
  • Many participants continued to reach the clinical threshold for PTSD, major depression disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and MI.
  • No differences between active-duty military members and Veterans were found in either the quantitative or qualitative results.
  • Differences were noted in both the quantitative and qualitative results between males and females participating in the PTS program.