Eric Hawkins, a psychologist at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, recently received a VA HSR&D, Merit Review Pilot grant to study the feasibility, acceptability and usability of a smartphone-based mobile application for self-management of unhealthy alcohol use among Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans in the community. The mobile application under study, Step Away, is designed to address common barriers to receiving specialty treatment for unhealthy alcohol use and increase access to care by helping persons manage drinking and alcohol-related problems on their own.

Dr. Hawkins’s study will evaluate the feasibility of using several online advertising approaches to recruit Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans nationally and assess the acceptability of Step Away to determine how it could be further adapted to meet the preferences of this younger cohort of Veterans. Study results will provide information necessary for larger evaluations of clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of Step Away in the future.