Supported Employment in Patient Aligned Care Teams

Efficacy of Supported Employment Within the OIF/OEF Patient Aligned Care Team

In response to the Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Deployment Health Research, this study addresses the delivery of an evidenced-based vocational rehabilitation, specifically Individual Placement and Support (IPS), for Veterans who are facing unemployment and mental illness as they try to recovery and re-establish civilian life. This study provides the requisite evidence needed to guide the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as to whether to expand the target population for IPS to Veterans with any mental disorder, delivered directly within the primary care setting (i.e. Patient Aligned Care Team; PACT). Such modifications in VHA practice could substantially improve Veteran vocational rehabilitation access and outcomes, moving a significantly greater number of disabled Veterans back to full and productive lives in the community.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder; Substance Use Disorders; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Mental Disorder; Anxiety Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Individual Placement and Support (IPS); Other: Treatment as Usual Vocational Rehabilitation/Transitional Work (TUA-VR)

Detailed Description

Background: Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan wars often confront unemployment as they reintegrate into civilian life. Over the past two decades, studies of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) supported employment have yielded remarkably robust and consistent vocational rehabilitation outcomes. However, IPS has predominantly only been studied in mental health settings and in the seriously mentally ill populations. Access to a mental health setting for recently deployed Veterans is often delayed by months or years, and thus, result in substantial delay of referrals to vocational rehabilitation programs which leave many Veterans vulnerable to continued unemployment and a deteriorating trajectory.

Methods: This single site, prospective, randomized, controlled study evaluated the efficacy of IPS when delivered within primary care Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT). Participants were U.S. military Veterans who served in the Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) and/or any other Southwest Asia operations (i.e. since 1990) who were receiving care in a primary care PACT, currently unemployed and diagnosed with any mental disorder other than a serious mental illness. Eligible participants were randomized 1:1 to either IPS or VHA treatment as usual vocational rehabilitation (TAU-VR) which included prevocational counseling, community based supported employment, or most commonly Transitional Work assignment. Compared to TAU-VR (control condition), IPS delivered within a PACT was hypothesized to result in a higher rate of steady workers, as defined by working >/=50% of the weeks in the 12-month follow-up period in a competitive job (primary outcome), more weeks worked in a competitive job, and more income earned.

Significance: In an innovative approach, this study breaks from the diagnostic categorical approach and the mental health treatment setting and evaluates the efficacy of IPS when delivered in a primary care setting, specifically a PACT that serves Veterans who have returned from the Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Southwest Asia conflicts. Making a substantial paradigm shift, this study integrates IPS within a PACT for the first time ever. The research is directly linked to the RR&D priority areas of improving vocational outcomes and promoting recovery in Veterans.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 119
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Alabama
    • Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, 35404
      • Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, AL

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 19* (<19 years of age is the state of Alabama defined minor)
• Receiving primary care treatment in the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center (TVAMC) PACT, called the Transition Center (i.e. served during the OEF/OIF/OND/other Southwest Asia conflicts) or other Primary Care PACT providing care for OEF/OIF/OND/other Southwest Asia Veteran
• Otherwise eligible for TVAMC vocational rehabilitation services, in the event that the Veteran is randomized to TW
• diagnosis that is disabling or potentially disabling (i.e. depressive, bipolar II, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, trauma- and stressor-related, dissociative, impulse- control, and substance related/addictive (other than caffeine and nicotine) disorder classifications), other than those listed as exclusionary, within past 90 days according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th edition.
• Currently unemployed, defined as not working in a competitive job for a wage or under-employed, defined as (defined as: working less than 20 hours per week in a job that is low wage and is not in keeping with the Veteran's ability, aptitude, or skills)
• Expression of interest in competitive employment
• Willing and able to give informed consent.

Note: Veterans with history of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be included in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current diagnosis of (i) schizophrenia, (ii) schizoaffective, (iii) bipolar I disorder, or major depression with psychotic features, since these Veterans may receive IPS in mental health
• Diagnosis of dementia (evidenced in the medical record)
• Clinically significant unstable or severe medical condition, or terminal illness, that would contraindicate study participation or expose them to an undue risk of a significant adverse event
• Unlikely that participant can complete the study, e.g. expected deployment, incarceration, long-term hospitalization, or relocation from the vicinity of the TVAMC during the study period
• Active suicidal or homicidal ideation making it unsafe for Veteran to be included in study
• Current participation in another interventional trial.

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
Experimental: Individual Placement and Support (IPS); Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is supported employment and involves the following domains: 1) competitive employment: IPS assists participants to enter into competitive jobs; 2) eligibility based on client choice, i.e. "zero exclusion"; 3) integration of IPS and treatment team, i.e. the PACT; 4) patient-centered job match for competitive employment; 5) personalized benefits counseling: IPS specialists help Veterans obtain information about their VA, Social Security, Medicaid, and other government entitlements; 6) rapid job search: IPS specialists use a rapid job search, rather than providing lengthy pre-employment assessment, training, counseling; 7) job development: IPS specialists build an employer network based on Veterans' interests; 8) time-unlimited and individualized support: follow-along IPS supports are individualized and continue for as long as needed during the 12-month study.	Behavioral: Individual Placement and Support (IPS); Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is the evidenced based model of supported employment.; Other Names: Supported Employment
Active Comparator: Treatment as Usual Vocational Rehabilitation/Transitional Work (TAU-VR); Treatment as Usual Vocational Rehabilitation includes pre-vocational counseling, Community Based Supported Employment, or most commonly Transitional Work assignments (TW) which involves 1) time-limited set-aside work experiences: short-term transitional work experiences in a brokered or set-aside work setting; 2) no strict entrance criteria other than general medical clearance; 3) limited integration of TW and clinical Services; 4) not patient-centered: TW jobs are pre-arranged, set-aside jobs are less likely to have a meaningful relationship to the Veterans' preferences; 5) personalized benefits counseling; 6) limited job search: TW specialists provide variable and limited guidance for competitive job search; 7) no job development: TW specialists do not engage in community based job development; 8) time limited: The TW specialist does not provide long-term follow-up after the first job is obtained.	Other: Treatment as Usual Vocational Rehabilitation/Transitional Work (TUA-VR); Vocational Rehabilitation Treatment as Usual includes pre-vocational counseling, Community Based Supported Employment, or most commonly Transitional Work assignments (TW).; Other Names: Treatment as Usual; Transitional Work

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Steady Worker	Participants were categorized as a steady worker if they held a competitive job for 50% or more of the 12-month follow-up (i.e. 26 or more weeks out of 52 weeks).	12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Weeks Worked in a Competitive Job	Number of weeks out of 52 week follow-up in which the participant worked at least one hour in a competitive job.	12 months
Time to First Competitive Job	The number of weeks from randomization until the participant worked in a competitive job.	12 months
Income Earned From Competitive Jobs	For those participants, the income earned from any competitive jobs was added for the 52-week follow-up period.	12 months
Symptom Checklist-90-Revised Change From Baseline to Month 12.	Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R): 90-item self-report survey; assesses nine dimensions. Each item is self-rated for level of discomfort/distress on scale of 0 "not at all" to 4 "extremely" for somatization (range 0 to 48), obsessive-compulsive symptoms (range 0 to 40), interpersonal sensitivity (range 0 to 36), depression (range 0 to 52), anxiety (range 0 to 40), hostility (range 0 to 24), phobic-anxiety (range 0 to 28), paranoid ideation (range 0 to 24), and psychoticism (range 0 to 40). Total score for a dimension is the sum of items and the distress score for each dimension is the sum divided by number of items in that dimension (range = 0 to 4). Global Severity Index is a mean of all items, calculated by dividing the sum of scores by the number of items (range 0 to 4). Higher score indicates greater distress and increase in score over time indicates worse outcome.	Change from baseline to month 12 (value at 12 months minus value at baseline) is shown below. Additionally, all relevant time points used in the calculation timeframe from baseline to 12 months (baseline, months 4, 6, 8, and 12) included in analysis.
Income Earned From All Sources	All income earned from competitive, transitional work, and other sources over the 12-month follow-up.	12 months
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale Change From Baseline to 12 Months.	Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is a 10-item self-report Likert-type questionnaire that asks participants to indicate the degree of their agreement or disagreement with statements about their self-esteem and self-depreciation from 0 = "strongly agree" to 3 = "strongly disagree". The items are summed and the scoring ranges from 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating a higher degree of self-esteem; a positive change in score over time indicates improved self esteem. A score less than 15 may indicate low self esteem.	Change from baseline to month 12 (value at 12 months minus value at baseline) is shown below. Additionally, all relevant time points used in the calculation timeframe from baseline to 12 months (baseline, months 4, 6, 8, 12) were included in mixed model.
Income Earned From Competitive Jobs in Participants Who Held a Competitive Job	Income earned ($) from competitive jobs over 12 months was compared between groups for all randomized participants who held a competitive job at some point.	12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Community Reintegration of Service Members	Community Reintegration of Service Members (CRIS) is a self-report instrument used to evaluate the Veteran's reintegration into the community. The correlations between the CRIS and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey scales of role physical, role emotional, and social functioning were 0.44-0.80 and the CRIS has strong reliability, conceptual integrity, and construct validity. In pilot studies with 126 veterans, working subjects had better CRIS scores then unemployed subjects. Items on the CRIS cover 9 aspects of participation: Learning and Applying Knowledge, General Tasks and Demands, Communication, Mobility, Self-care, Domestic Life, Interpersonal Relationships, Major Life Areas, and Community, Social and Civic Life. Subscale scores for 1) extent of participation, 2) perceived limitations, and 3) satisfaction with participation are calculated. For each of the 3 subscales, the minimum score is 10, the maximum score is 70. Higher scores are indication of better outcomes.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lori L Davis, MD, Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, AL

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Davis LL, Blansett CM, Mumba MN, MacVicar D, Toscano R, Pilkinton P, Gay W, Bartolucci A. The methods and baseline characteristics of a VA randomized controlled study evaluating supported employment provided in primary care patient aligned care teams. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020 Feb 17;20(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12874-020-0919-1.
• Davis LL, Mumba MN, Toscano R, Pilkinton P, Blansett CM, McCall K, MacVicar D, Bartolucci A. A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supported Employment Integrated in Primary Care. Psychiatr Serv. 2022 Jun;73(6):620-627. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000926. Epub 2021 Sep 15.

Helpful Links

• Methods and Baseline paper

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 3, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 10, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 23, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): March 27, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 9, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 15, 2022
• Last Verified: February 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Primary Care; Veterans; Mental Disorders; Major Depression; Substance Use Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Vocational Rehabilitation; Supported Employment; Individual Placement and Support; Patient Aligned Care Team; Posttraumatic Stress disorder; Transitional Work
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Chemically-Induced Disorders; Pathologic Processes; Mood Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Depressive Disorder; Disease; Psychotic Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Mental Disorders; Depressive Disorder, Major
• Other Study ID Numbers: D1489-I

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: No individual participant data will be shared.

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