Assessing Supported Employment With Veterans With Felony Convictions and Mental Illness or Substance Abuse

Assessing Supported Employment With Veterans With Felony Convictions and MI or SA

This study continues to develop and refine best practices in the delivery of vocational services to veterans with histories of felony convictions and mental health/substance abuse difficulties. There are currently over 225,000 incarcerated veterans and it is estimated 64,000 veterans are released from prisons annually. These veterans encounter significant difficulties in finding employment due to stigma, intrapersonal difficulties, and out-dated work skills. Additionally these veterans are more likely to be homeless than other population., Previous work has found that manual based, vocational groups led by trained vocational staff led to quicker employment compared to traditional vocational services and manual based self studies. To attempt to improve on previous results, this study adds principles and components of supported employment including ongoing follow-up, treatment team coordination, and community based assistance.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Employment
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Group vocational intervention; Other: Supported Employment Condition

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 140
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75216
      • VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• history of at least one felony conviction
• diagnosis of a mental illness including substance use disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• dementia
• active psychosis

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Group Based Vocational Rehabilitation; Group vocational intervention	Other: Group vocational intervention; Group based manualized vocational rehabilitation
Experimental: Supported Employment Condition; Group vocational intervention + supported employment	Other: Supported Employment Condition; Veterans in this condition will receive a proven group based manualized vocational rehabilitation intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Employment	Number of veterans finding work within 6 months	within 6 months
Total Employment	Total amount employed over 1 year follow-up period	1 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
• Collaborators: North Texas Veterans Healthcare System
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: James P. LePage, PhD, VA North Texas Health Care System Dallas VA Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 31, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 31, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 26, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 26, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): June 28, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 17, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 4, 2019
• Last Verified: June 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: D7635-R

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No