Spinal Cord Injury Vocational Integration Program (SCI-VIP) (SCI-VIP)

February 3, 2016 updated by: VA Office of Research and Development

A Spinal Cord Injury Vocational Integration Program: Implementation and Outcomes

This study involves research about how to help Veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) gain employment. During the first couple of years following SCI, many people are concentrating on their rehabilitation and are unable to afford the time for return to work. However, studies have shown people often regain the necessary strength and function about two years after SCI to resume activities of daily living very similar to what they experienced prior to the SCI. Even though many social and legal efforts have been made in the last decade to improve chances for people with disabilities to return to work, Veterans with SCI are sometimes hindered in finding employment because of age, past work history, and many other factors. Other Veterans with SCI are very successful at finding employment either working for themselves or working for a company. The investigators know very little about what issues Veterans with SCI face when they attempt to find employment after SCI. The study will analyze both quantitative and qualitative measures to maximize its findings.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Legal mandates, such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, have been implemented to improve employment opportunities for disabled persons and yet the proportion of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) who are employed remains about 9%. For the Veteran population with SCI, the return to work rate is most likely much lower. This study will be conducted to evaluate whether a vocational rehabilitation program patterned after the VA Community Employment and Support approach improves rehabilitation outcomes for the SCI Veteran population as compared with vocational rehabilitation practices currently used in most Veteran Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs). The vocational rehabilitation program developed for the SCI Veterans is referred to as SCI-VIP and it will be implemented at the Dallas VA Medical Center (VAMC), Houston VAMC, San Diego VAMC, and Cleveland VAMC. A five year evaluative research will be conducted to test the following hypothesized outcomes (HO) from the subjects who participate in the SCI-VIP program and a control group of subjects who receive conventional methods of vocational rehabilitation:

Primary HO: Veterans with SCI who participate in the SCI-VIP will demonstrate significantly greater changes in vocational rehabilitation after twelve months than those who do not receive this intervention. Vocational rehabilitation will be a measure of change from baseline to one-year in the subject's scores on instruments which measure employment indices, perceived barriers to employment, level of handicap, quality of life, depression, and sustaining care needs.

Secondary HO 1: Veterans with SCI who participate in the SCI-VIP will exhibit lower VA and non-VA costs for medical, non-rehabilitation treatment, offsetting the higher SCI-VIP program costs.

Secondary HO 2: The program fidelity will be equally adequate in terms of accomplishing program objectives relative to operations, cost-benefit balance, subject and stakeholder satisfaction, and outcomes when comparing the four SCI-VIP programs and when comparing conventional vocational rehabilitation approaches applied at six different VAMCs.

Program evaluation and cost-benefit analysis will be conducted using a fidelity instrument developed by the researchers and patterned after fidelity instruments conventionally used to evaluate psychiatric rehabilitation programs. Veterans at each VAMC who express an interest in vocational rehabilitation and consent to participate in this study will be randomized to either the experimental or the control group. It is expected that at least 96 subjects will participate in the SCI-VIP approach to vocational rehabilitation and 144 Veterans who receive conventional vocational rehabilitation will form the control group.

Data will be collected from subjects upon enrollment into either the experimental or control group and every three months for one year. Descriptive analysis will be used to compare differences between groups of subjects drawn from each VAMC and to compare participants in the experimental and control groups. Analysis of variance will be computed to determine degree of difference between experimental group and control group subjects' scores on each dependent variable. The study hypotheses will be tested using the Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square, and odds ratio statistical procedures. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel along with relative risk scores will indicate the likelihood that any change in performance between baseline and program completion for ether experimental or control group subjects could be attributed to the subjects' degree of participation in the SCI-VIP, which VAMC vocational rehabilitation services were received, SCI factors, and age.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

249

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Florida
      • Tampa, Florida, United States, 33612
        • James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, FL
    • Missouri
      • St Louis, Missouri, United States, 63106
        • VA Medical Center, St Louis
    • Ohio
      • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44106
        • VA Medical Center, Cleveland
    • Texas
      • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75216
        • VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
        • Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (152)

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Between the ages of 18 and 65 years old - Spinal cord injured as a result of trauma or disease
  • Medically and neurologically stable
  • Lives within the metropolitan area that is proximal to the VAMC (Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, St. Louis)
  • Has access to transportation
  • Expresses an interest in competitive employment as an outcome of participation
  • Willingly signs a consent form indicating voluntary and informed participation in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Medically and/or surgically unstable
  • Unwilling to complete the consenting process
  • Mentally impaired such that independent reasoning and judgment jeopardize safety of self and others
  • Currently involved in untreated alcohol and/or drug dependency
  • Employed in a compensated job at the time of recruitment and earning above SGA ($940/month in 2008) - Lives more than approximately 100 miles from the participating VAMC SCI Center

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Arm 1
SCI-VIP: Supported employment implemented for veterans with spinal cord injury
Behavioral: Arm 1
SCI-VIP: Supported employment implemented for veterans with spinal cord injury.
Placebo Comparator: Arm 2
Standard Care: varies slightly between participating VA SCI centers, however, usually involves referral outside SCI center
Behavioral: Arm 2
Standard Care: varies slightly between participating VA SCI centers, however, usually involves referral outside SCI center

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Competitive Employment-Total Jobs
Time Frame: 12 months
Competitive employment (a job in the community paying minimum wage ) during year 1 among those subjects obtaining employment.
12 months
Competitive Employment-Participants With Competitive Employment
Time Frame: 12 months
Competitive employment (a job in the community paying minimum wage ) during year 1 among those subjects obtaining employment.
12 months
Competitive Employment-Percentage of Participants With Competitive Employment
Time Frame: 12 months
Employment outcomes during year 1 among those subjects obtaining competitive employment.
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2006

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 1, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 7, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

July 8, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 3, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 3, 2016

Last Verified

February 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • B3773-R

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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