Pathways to Vocational Rehabilitation: Enhancing Entry and Retention

NCT ID: NCT00223834

Last Updated: 2008-03-14

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 200 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2005-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2007-09-30

Brief Summary

This study will examine the barriers and supports for entering and receiving work-related services for veterans with a serious mental illness. It will also determine the effectiveness of a brief motivational interviewing intervention designed to help veterans receive these services.

Detailed Description

Randomized clinical trials and naturalistic studies show that among patients meeting criteria for chronic mental illness, those participating in vocational rehabilitation (VR) have significantly reduced days of inpatient hospitalization. Unfortunately, the majority of eligible adults fail to enter VR and almost half of those who do, drop out or are involuntarily discharged. The reasons for nonparticipation and drop out and their impact on rehabilitation outcomes are poorly understood.

The study will provide needed naturalistic data documenting:

1. the way in which barriers function to reduce entry to services and contribute to the high rate of dropout,

2. the outcomes associated with different patterns of participation, and

3. relative rates of entry and retention in a non-VHA VR exemplar of the Intensive Placement and Support (IPS) model at the Manchester Mental Health Center in Manchester, New Hampshire.

While we need to know more about these "barriers" in order to develop the range of appropriate interventions, the enhancement of client motivation for work and rehabilitation is likely to have a positive impact both on entry and sustained compliance. We are proposing a random assignment single blind trial of a brief Motivational Interviewing (MI) intervention designed to address the low entry and retention rates of veterans with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) in Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) VR services.

Conditions

Poverty; Unemployment

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

1

Single session orientation to available services

Group Type: OTHER

single session of Motivational Interviewing

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Interventions

single session of Motivational Interviewing

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Current diagnosis of serious mental illness, present for at least 2 years
• Is unemployed or underemployed
• Current episode of un/underemployment is at least 3 months
• Enrolled to receive services at study site

Exclusion Criteria

• Over the age of 55
• Non-English speaker
• Mini-Mental score of less than 20
• Planning to move more than 30 miles from study site in the next 18 months
• Previously screened for this study
• Currently or previously involved in other research studies which may impact variables relevant to this study

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 55 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

US Department of Veterans Affairs

FED

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Department of Veterans Affairs

Principal Investigators

Charles Drebing, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford

Locations

Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford

Bedford, Massachusetts, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

E3436R

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id