Reclaiming Your Path Wisconsin: Veteran Peer Navigation for Mental Health Emergencies

Project Summary:

Wisconsin has 331,000 veterans who face higher rates of mental health challenges—including PTSD, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse—than their civilian counterparts. Fragmented care between the VA Healthcare System and civilian providers leads to poor coordination and allows veterans to slip through the cracks, especially in rural areas where mental health disparities are pronounced. The Reclaiming Your Path Wisconsin (RYP-WI) project aims to improve access, acceptance, and coordination of emergency mental health care for veterans in crisis by scaling up a statewide para-professional mental health navigator workforce. The project team will leverage a fully developed training kit designed collaboratively with veterans through a recently completed Patient Center Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) pilot program. Working with long-term partnerships at the Wisconsin American Legion and UWM's Military and Veteran Resource Center (MAVRC), the team will integrate RYP-WI trainings into existing structures and train 50 American Legion and 25 MAVRC mental health navigators. Project objectives are to scale training infrastructure by incorporating RYP modules into Legion and MAVRC programs, transforming materials into online content, and deploying a sustainable training framework; train and retain navigators to provide veterans with information on evidence-based PTSD treatments and crisis warning signs, ultimately impacting over 1,875 veterans across at least five Wisconsin counties (through Legion District system and UWM MAVRC); and provide leadership and interagency care coordination training for RYP peer mentors, enhancing their capacity as near-peer supports to mental health navigators. Peer mentors will also serve as co-researchers exploring barriers to mental health crisis care. By expanding and strengthening this workforce, this project aims to improve veterans' understanding of PTSD care options, enhance support during crises, and facilitate better coordination between VA and civilian systems of care.