Supported Education Pilot (SEd)

April 6, 2015 updated by: US Department of Veterans Affairs

Supporting Education Goals of OIF/OEF Veterans With PTSD: Pilot Process & Outcome

The goal of this project is to gather data necessary for a full scale trial of a supported education service for OIF/OEF veterans with PTSD. Forty Veterans with PTSD will be randomly assigned to an intervention group (N=20) that receives a weekly supported education intervention and a control group that receives services as usual plus an hour of attentive intervention not focused on education. We will assess and compare the number of hours of participation in community education settings and on acquiring an educational goal for the Veterans in each group.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Goal: The goal of this project is to gather data on feasibility and effect size necessary for a full scale trial of a supported education service for Operation Iraq and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans with PTSD that will contribute to its evidence-base. Supported education is a rehabilitation and recovery based intervention that is new to VHA services and that responds to an expressed but unmet need among these warriors with war-related trauma. We propose to conduct a pilot of a supported education service and employ a process and outcome evaluation.

Anticipated Impacts on Veterans Healthcare: Veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) possess educational aspirations. Due to limited education and disability adjustment, many such veterans unsuccessfully locate employment or obtain entry level jobs with limited advancement opportunities. Even with current GI Bill funding increases, veterans experience non-financial barriers to their pursuit of educational goals. Supported education is a strategy developed within the civilian population that facilitates skill, career, and educational goals within post-secondary educational settings. It has been shown to increase educational engagement, participation, and completion, as well as improve empowerment and school efficacy. We hypothesize that supported education tailored to returning Veterans will result in similar outcomes.

Aims and Objectives: The goal of this project is to gather data necessary for a full scale trial of a supported education service for OIF/OEF veterans with PTSD. The following are the aims and objectives:

Aim 1: Using a randomized controlled design, assess the magnitude of the effect of a supported education service on hours of participation in community educational settings and on acquiring an educational goal. Objective: Assess the number of hours of participation in community education settings and on acquiring an educational goal for 40 Veterans with PTSD who are randomly assigned to an intervention group (N=20) that receives a weekly supported education intervention and a control group that receives services as usual plus an hour of attentive intervention not focused on education.

Aim 2. To examine whether the supported education intervention has secondary effects for improving PTSD symptoms and attitudes on recovery. Objective: Conduct pre- and post assessments of recovery attitudes and of PTSD symptoms, and then compare the control and intervention group for changes in these scores.

Aim 3. To acquire additional process information on the design and implementation of a supported education service necessary for a successful larger trial. Objective: Conduct a process evaluation of the implementation strategies for: participant recruitment, participant drop-out, technician training procedures, technician recovery promoting competence, and curriculum content and pacing using a standardized assessment, exit interviews, peer notes and study records.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

33

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

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

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • PTSD
  • OIF/OEF Service

Exclusion Criteria:

None

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: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Supported Education
Veterans received supported education services. A Veteran peer met weekly as needed with a subject for up to six months in a psycho-social rehabilitation service for meeting education goals. Goals included choosing a college, getting admitted or enrolled, and maintaining enrollment and completing classes.
Other: Supported Education
Rehabilitation counseling using peers to achieve educational goals
Other Names:
  • Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Active Comparator: General Peer Support
Matched attention was provided by a Veteran peer who met weekly with Veterans but who focused on help with any personal goal (eg, employment, housing) but not on education.
Other: General Peer Support
Matched peer support for any personal goal other than education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
"Supported Education Process Measure"
Time Frame: 6 months
Number of quarter hours spent in activities related to acquiring an education goal e.g., preparing applications, attending classes. Hours will be logged on a tally sheet adapted from the "Supported Education Process Measure" (Corrigan, 2009).
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

US Department of Veterans Affairs

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marsha Langer Ellison, PhD MSW, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA

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

November 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 18, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 22, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

February 23, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 28, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 6, 2015

Last Verified

September 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PPO 09-254

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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