Helping Youth on the Path to Employment

NCT ID: NCT04254562

Last Updated: 2025-07-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 103 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-10-11
• Study Completion Date: 2024-09-30

Brief Summary

Helping Youth on the Path to Employment (HYPE): Creating economic self-sufficiency, a randomized-controlled implementation efficacy hybrid trial, will test a manualized intervention combining educational and employment supports for young adults with mental health conditions on a college campus.

Detailed Description

Previous controlled trials in mature adult subjects has consistently demonstrated that Supported Employment interventions (i.e., Individual Placement and Supports) elicit benefit for those with mental health conditions in getting and keeping productive work. Similarly, previous research demonstrates that Supported Education has efficacy in helping young adults with mental health conditions in their academics. However, to date, no evidence-based practice exists which combines both supported education and supported employment interventions into a single model that has efficacy and utility for young adults with serious mental health conditions. Supported Education has been fruitful for navigating academics, but hasn't demonstrated efficacy for supporting young adults with their careers, and Supported Employment programs, like IPS, have shown poor efficacy for helping young adults, as it was designed to assist mature adults. Therefore, the HYPE Model will become the first evidence-informed intervention to combine Supported Employment and Supported Education paradigms in an effort to help young adults with mental health conditions successfully navigate college so they can move into a primary labor market career and attain economic self-sufficiency. Furthermore, this study will be employed from within the university setting itself, on the college campus, and will be embedded directly in either Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) (i.e., Office of disability services) or Office of Counseling Services.

Conditions

Mental Impairment; Educational Problems

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Experimental Group: HYPE Services

The experimental arm will receive the HYPE intervention for 12 months.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Weekly Meetings with a Supported Employment/Supported Education Specialist

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive intervention for 12 months which includes weekly meetings with a Supported Employment/Supported Education Specialist (HYPE Specialist). During the weekly meetings, the HYPE Specialist will review each participant's education and employment goals, and deliver individualized support relevant to those goals which include use of structured HYPE tools and worksheets as needed.

Focused Skill and Strategy Training (FSST)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants receive a 12 week Focused Skill and Strategy Training (FSST), a structured cognitive remediation intervention.

Control Group: Enhanced Academic Services as Usual

The control arm will receive a special personalized packet of resources available on campus and off-campus within a 10-mile radius, as "enhanced academic services as usual."

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Enhanced Services as Usual

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

One hour meetings every semester to review individual academic needs and review list of available on campus resources to best meet the student's needs.

Interventions

Weekly Meetings with a Supported Employment/Supported Education Specialist

Participants will receive intervention for 12 months which includes weekly meetings with a Supported Employment/Supported Education Specialist (HYPE Specialist). During the weekly meetings, the HYPE Specialist will review each participant's education and employment goals, and deliver individualized support relevant to those goals which include use of structured HYPE tools and worksheets as needed.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Focused Skill and Strategy Training (FSST)

Participants receive a 12 week Focused Skill and Strategy Training (FSST), a structured cognitive remediation intervention.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Enhanced Services as Usual

One hour meetings every semester to review individual academic needs and review list of available on campus resources to best meet the student's needs.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• be between 18-30 years of age
• able to speak and read English fluently
• cognitively capable of providing informed consent and participating in study activities;
• enrolled in a minimum of six credits at a campus-based accredited college (two year or four-year programs)
• intending to enroll in a minimum of four semesters of college courses with the expectation of being continuously enrolled
• have had at least one prior academic disruption during a college academic semester - (e.g., withdrawal from postsecondary institutions; academic probation; not meeting satisfactory academic progress; or a prior leave of absence) prior to study enrollment
• currently have a diagnosed mental health condition by a licensed mental health provider under the DSM-V Axis 1 diagnoses (schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, attention deficits and disruptive behavior disorders) or have been deemed eligible for ADA protections due to a disabling mental health condition - (e.g., receiving state vocational agency services, SSI/DI benefits, or postsecondary accommodations).

Exclusion Criteria

• have received or are receiving supports consistent with HYPE in the past year;
• have had no impact to academic success in college (i.e. disruption);
• have a secondary autism spectrum disorder, traumatic brain injury, or other neurodevelopmental or neurocognitive disorder affecting cognition;
• are currently incarcerated prisoners;
• are unable to speak or read English fluently;
• are under age 18 or require a legal guardian to provide informed consent;
• lack the cognitive capability to provide informed consent on their own

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 30 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Colorado State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research

FED

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Binghamton University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Massachusetts, Worcester

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Michelle Mullen

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Michelle Mullen, MS

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

UMass Medical School

Locations

Colorado State University

Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

UMass Medical School

Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Binghamton University

Binghamton, New York, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

HHS-2019-ACL-NIDILRR-RTEM-0334

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

H00017845

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id