Evaluating Vocational Materials for Incarcerated Veterans With Mental Illness or Substance Abuse

NCT ID: NCT00648115

Last Updated: 2017-12-18

Study Results

Results available

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Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

111 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2009-06-01

Study Completion Date

2017-09-29

Brief Summary

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The purpose of this research is to test the usefulness of a vocational rehabilitation program for veterans with a history of felonies who also have a mental illness or have substance dependency.

Detailed Description

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The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BOJS, 2000) reported in 2000 over 225,000 veterans were incarcerated in the nations' criminal facilities; 1 in 5 of these veterans saw combat during service. Approximately 78,000 veterans annually will be released from incarceration with 30% of those released from incarceration are re-arrested within 3 months, 44.1% re-arrested at one year, and 67.5% within 3 years. These numbers are higher with those with serious mental illnesses: 54.3% re-arrest rates at one year and 72% at 3 years.

The living status that many of these veterans with felonies return to is dire. In a survey of dually diagnosed and mentally ill offenders, 22% of mentally ill offenders and 43% of mentally ill offenders with substance addiction believed they would be homeless upon release. Ex-felons often return to more disadvantaged communities where employment is scarce (La Vigne, Mamalian, Travis, \& Visher, 2003). Employers are reluctant to hire those with a history of incarceration due to biases against ex-offenders or due to legal liability (Connerley, Arvey, \& Bernardy, 2001) or other biases (Holzer, 1996). Overall, employers have been shown to be less likely to hire ex-convicts than those with little work experience or those who are receiving welfare benefits (Holtzer, 1996).

The goal of this study is to identify successful vocational re-integration modalities for mental health and/or substance dependent veterans recently released from incarceration and those with felony histories. Specific Goals are 1) test time to employment between manual conditions; 2) test total time employed over the 12 months following training period; and 3) test economic impact between manual conditions The study will be a controlled 3 group randomized design. The independent variable will be the amount of vocational services received. Veterans will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Basic vocational services but no manualized vocational program; 2) self-study of the manualized program; and 3) a full program consisting of the manualized program with vocational staff and peer vocational support specialists. All veterans enrolled in the study will have access to a Veteran's Employment Resource Center to provide infrastructure for job search.

Three primary dependent variables will be used. The first is the time till employment. The second is the total time employed during the 12 months following training. The third will be the economic impact of the training through differences in services required (e.g. emergency room visits, food stamps, cost of shelters, costs of rearrests) and income earned. Type of job skills, job history, and time incarcerated are some of the variables that potentially will be statistically controlled.

Conditions

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Mental Illness

Keywords

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Veterans Substance-Related Disorders Mental Health

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Basic Vocational Services

Veteran receives basic vocational services

Group Type OTHER

Basic Vocational Services

Intervention Type OTHER

Vocational services

Self-Study

Veteran participates in self-study vocational program

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Self-Study

Intervention Type OTHER

Veteran receives self-study resources

Group program

Group based vocational program

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Group Program

Intervention Type OTHER

Veteran participates in group vocational program

Interventions

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Basic Vocational Services

Vocational services

Intervention Type OTHER

Self-Study

Veteran receives self-study resources

Intervention Type OTHER

Group Program

Veteran participates in group vocational program

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* underemployed or unemployed
* has a mental health or substance dependence diagnosis
* desires to enter the workforce through competitive employment.
* History of at least one felony conviction

Emphasis will be placed on returning OEF/OIF veterans, combat veterans, and women veterans. Veterans entering the study can be recruited regardless of living situation.

Exclusion Criteria

* pursuing disability benefits due to unemployability
* diagnosis of dementia or evidence of severe cognitive impairment
* impaired reality testing due to psychosis
* actively suicidal or homicidal.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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VA Office of Research and Development

FED

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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James P. LePage, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Locations

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VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Dallas, Texas, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Garcia-Rea E, LePage JP. Reliability and validity of World Health Organization Quality of Life-100 in homeless substance-dependent veteran population. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2008;45(4):619-25. doi: 10.1682/jrrd.2007.03.0048.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18712647 (View on PubMed)

LePage JP, Washington EL, Lewis AA, Johnson KE, Garcia-Rea EA. Effects of structured vocational services on job-search success in ex-offender veterans with mental illness: 3-month follow-up. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2011;48(3):277-86. doi: 10.1682/jrrd.2010.03.0032.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 21480102 (View on PubMed)

LePage JP, Lewis AA, Washington EL, Davis B, Glasgow A. Effects of structured vocational services in ex-offender veterans with mental illness: 6-month follow-up. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2013;50(2):183-92. doi: 10.1682/jrrd.2011.09.0163.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 23760999 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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08-004

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

D6192-R

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id