The Home Base program is an innovative outpatient mental health treatment program for veterans, service members, and their families. Launched in 2009 as a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital, this nonprofit program represents an innovative approach to addressing the “invisible wounds” of war affecting veterans, service members, and their families. Veterans and service members face distinct mental health challenges related to their military experiences, which standard treatments in traditional settings may not adequately address. In addition, veterans and service members face numerous barriers to accessing and continuing mental health care, including stigma, financial constraints and a lack of understanding.
Recognizing the significant and unique mental health needs of these populations, Home Base has sought to address the shortcomings of existing treatment models. Since its inception in 2009, Home Base has served more than 4,000 patients, including 3,031 veterans and service members and 1,025 family members. A recent article discusses the innovative strategies employed by the Home Base program and presents the results of a survey completed by participants in 2023.
There are a number of key elements intrinsic to the Home Base program that have been implemented in order to improve access to mental health services and to provide treatments tailored to these populations:
Veteran Outreach Team: A team of veterans serves as the “front door” to the program, conducting outreach, providing initial screenings, and helping to connect veterans to care. This approach leverages shared military experiences in order to build trust and to reduce stigma around seeking mental health treatment.
Family Programming: Home Base provides multidisciplinary mental health services specifically for adult family members of veterans and service members. The services include individual therapy, group therapy, couples therapy, parenting interventions, and case management services.
Skills-Based Outpatient Addiction Recovery (SOAR): Substance use disorders (SUDs) are frequently comorbid with PTSD and other mental health conditions. Home Base offers an intensive outpatient group therapy program for substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health conditions. SOAR uses a harm reduction strategy and does not require abstinence to participate.
No-Cost Care: Services are provided at no cost to veterans, service members, and their families.
Broad Eligibility: Care is provided to veterans and service members of all ages, regardless of deployments, branch, or discharge status.
Telehealth Services: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of services have been provided via telehealth.
Measuring Outcomes
The clinical care model developed at Home Base has been refined over time through an iterative, flexible approach integrating patient feedback and considering clinical feasibility. Home Base has gathered survey data on pre- and post-treatment outcomes for patients seeking care in the outpatient clinic since its inception; however, outcome measures have varied over time as the program has evolved.
Data from the SOAR program has shown statistically significant reductions in alcohol use, other substance use, and depressive symptoms among participants.
In a 2023 survey assessing participants’ satisfaction, 92.8% of veteran/service member respondents and 86% of family member respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the clinical care received. In addition, 79.3% of veteran/service member respondents and 79% of family member respondents indicated they would recommend Home Base to others.
Expanding Programs for Veterans and Service Members
The If you or a loved one is experiencing any emotional, mental health struggles, you are not alone. Please contact Home Base at (617) 724-5202, or visit www.homebase.org by reducing and/or mitigating common barriers to care in addition to enhancing the availability of needed multidisciplinary services. Home Base is the first and largest private sector clinic for Veterans and service members in the nation. The number of patients seeking care has grown year over year, with 656 veterans/service members and 108 family members served in 2023, compared to 513 veterans/service members and 78 family members in 2022.
While the authors point to the successes of the Home Base program, they acknowledge that further studies are needed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of this type of program in other communities.
If you or a loved one is experiencing any emotional, mental health struggles, you are not alone. Please contact Home Base at (617) 724-5202, or visit www.homebase.org.
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Hoover GG, Teer A, Lento R, Ward P, Zakarian RJ, Tinney W, Sanders W, Echevarria K, Bonvie J, Dunford K, Covitz J, Tanev KS. Innovative outpatient treatment for veterans and service members and their family members. Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jul 24; 15:1377433.
