Pathways to Vocational Rehabilitation: Enhancing Entry and Retention - Full Text View

Purpose

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.

Condition	Intervention
Poverty Unemployment	Behavioral: single session of Motivational Interviewing

MedlinePlus related topics:

Rehabilitation

U.S. FDA Resources

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Treatment, Randomized, Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor), Placebo Control, Single Group Assignment, Efficacy Study

Official Title:	Pathways to Vocational Rehabilitation: Enhancing Entry and Retention

Further study details as provided by Department of Veterans Affairs:

Primary Outcome Measures:

Entry and Retention in Vocational Rehabilitation [ Time Frame: 18 months post intervention ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Estimated Enrollment:	200
Study Start Date:	March 2005
Study Completion Date:	September 2007
Primary Completion Date:	January 2007 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)

Arms	Assigned Interventions
1 Single session orientation to available services	Behavioral: single session of Motivational Interviewing

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:

the way in which barriers function to reduce entry to services and contribute to the high rate of dropout,
the outcomes associated with different patterns of participation, and
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.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:	18 Years to 55 Years
Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

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

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00223834

Locations


United States, Massachusetts
	Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford
	Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, 01730

Sponsors and Collaborators

Department of Veterans Affairs

Investigators


Principal Investigator:	Charles Drebing, PhD	Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford

More Information

Responsible Party:	Department of Veterans Affairs ( Drebing, Charles - Principal Investigator )
Study ID Numbers:	E3436R
First Received:	September 14, 2005
Last Updated:	March 11, 2008
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00223834
Health Authority:	United States: Federal Government

Keywords provided by Department of Veterans Affairs:

Counseling

Motivation

Psychotherapy, brief

Study placed in the following topic categories:

Urinary Retention

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on October 03, 2008

Sponsored by:	Department of Veterans Affairs
Information provided by:	Department of Veterans Affairs
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00223834