Background

Stress reduction is a focus of healthcare management in Veterans who often faced extreme stressors during military service.

Objective

A quality improvement project to evaluate the implementation and effects of a brief mindfulness course delivered to Veterans, Mindful-Veteran (M-Vet), with self-reported mild to severe depressive symptoms in an outpatient setting.

Design

A within-subjects design was used to determine whether depressed Veterans enrolled in a 6-week M-Vet course report improvements in perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and quality of life.

Results

Mental health, general health, emotional role, and social functioning quality of life subscales significantly improved over the 6-week course. Severity of stress and depressive symptom scores, however, did not significantly decrease.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that this brief, simplified mindfulness program designed for military Veterans, seen within a community based outpatient clinic, has clinically beneficial effects on psychiatric outcomes.