Ilse Wiechers

I am a fellowship-trained, board-certified geriatric psychiatrist with additional expertise in health policy and health services research. As Associate Director for the Northeast Program Evaluation Center within the Office of Mental Health Operations, I am responsible for supporting evaluation of the national mental health services program within the Department of Veterans Affairs.This includes program evaluation of existing service lines, the development, dissemination and implementation of VA policy related to mental health services, and the analysis of outcomes of mental health treatment. In my current work as the National Program Director for the VA’s Psychotropic Drug Safety Initiative (PDSI), I am responsible for implementing and evaluating the outcomes of a nation-wide psychopharmacology quality improvement initiative. PDSI aims to ensure safe, effective, and evidence-based psychopharmacological treatments are provided to veterans with mental health problems across VA. My research to date has focused primarily on drug utilization studies and understanding prescribing patterns of psychotropic medications, especially among elderly and veteran populations. Through my expertise and ongoing work, both research and administrative, I have worked extensively with the VA administrative data and used it to perform program evaluations as well as studies of service utilization and pharmacoepidemiology.