Our Favorite Tips for Interviewing Veterans

Like many mental health patients, veterans often come to psychiatrists with their defenses raised by past experience with caregivers whom they perceive as lacking in understanding. Although health care professionals' own veteran and combat status sometimes can afford instant credibility, not all providers have wartime experience to use in developing rapport with their patients. To connect rapidly and effectively with their sometimes suspicious patients, they must find other ways to speed rapport. This article discusses the issues of establishing rapport, keeping an open mind, and dealing with questions about the clinician's own opinions that arise in interviewing veterans.