RISE Versus Advocacy-based Enhanced Care as Usual for Patients Experiencing IPV (RISE)

Recovering From IPV Through Strengths and Empowerment (RISE) Versus Advocacy-based Enhanced Care as Usual for Patients Experiencing IPV

This study aims to improve treatment for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). This study will evaluate two brief counseling interventions for VHA patients who have experienced IPV in the past 12 months: Recovering from IPV through Strength and Empowerment (RISE) and advocacy-based Enhanced Care as Usual (ECAU). The RISE intervention includes up to 8 sessions and includes specific topic areas (e.g., social support, health effects, resources). The other intervention, ECAU, includes a single session that includes supportive education about IPV and health effects, discussion of ways to increase safety, and information about resources. This study will test which approach is better for improving self-efficacy and other aspects of health.

Participants will answer surveys about their self-efficacy and other health and safety indicators (e.g., mental health symptoms) right before receiving treatment, approximately 12 weeks later, and then every three months after that for one year. Participation in this research will last about 15 months.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: RISE; Behavioral: Advocacy-based ECAU

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 172
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Katherine M Iverson, PhD; Phone Number: 857-364-2066; Email: Katherine.Iverson@va.gov
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Julianne Brady; Email: Julianne.Brady@va.gov

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02130
      • Recruiting
      • VA Boston Healthcare System
      • Contact: Katherine M Iverson, PhD
  • Minnesota
    • Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55417
      • Recruiting
      • VA Minneapolis Healthcare System
      • Contact: Princess Ackland, PhD
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • Recruiting
      • VA Philadelphia Healthcare System
      • Contact: Melissa Dichter, PhD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients receiving care at an enrolled site/affiliated Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC)
• report experience of past-year physical, psychological, and/or sexual IPV on an established screening tool used to detect IPV in VHA, and
• be able to provide informed consent including permission to have intervention sessions recorded

Exclusion Criteria:

• severe cognitive impairment,
• suicide or homicide intent with a specific plan
• untreated or unstable symptoms of mania or 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
Experimental: RISE (Recovering from Intimate Partner Violence through Strengths and Empowerment); Participants randomized to the RISE arm will have 1 or more RISE sessions.	Behavioral: RISE; RISE is personalized, trauma-informed, empowerment-oriented and variable-length, consisting of an initial 60-minute session and up to 7 additional 45-minute sessions (1-8 sessions total).
Active Comparator: Advocacy-based ECAU (Enhanced Care as Usual); Participants randomized to this arm will have a single Advocacy-based ECAU session	Behavioral: Advocacy-based ECAU; Advocacy-based ECAU is a single 60-minute trauma-informed counseling intervention that includes supportive education, validating and empathetic statements, safety planning, resource provision and referrals.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-efficacy	Self-efficacy will be assessed with the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), a 10-item instrument with possible responses for each item from 1 to 4 where 1= Not at all true, 2= Hardly true, 3= Moderately true, and 4=Exactly true.Scores can range from 10 to 40 and higher scores indicate more self efficacy.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depressive symptoms	Depressive symptoms will be assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD), a 20-item instrument with possible responses for each item from 0 to 3 where 0= Rarely or none of the time (less than 1 day), 1= Some or a little of the time (1-2 days), 2= Occasionally or a moderate amount of the time (3-4 days), and 3= Most or all of the time (5-7 days). Possible range of scores is 0 to 60, with the higher scores indicating more depressive symptoms.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms	PTSD symptoms will be assessed with the PTSD Checklist -DSM-5, a 20-item self-report measure of the DSM-5 symptoms of PTSD. A 5-point Likert scale is used for each item from 0 = "Not at all" to 4 = "Extremely". Total possible scores can range from 0 to 80 with higher scores indicating more PTSD symptoms.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Alcohol use	Alcohol use will be assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-10 (AUDIT-10), a 10-item instrument with possible responses for each item from 0 to 4 for questions 1-8 and possible responses of 0, 2, and 4 for questions 9 and 10. Total possible scores can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating greater alcohol use.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Hopelessness	Hopelessness will be assessed by the 20-item Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). The BHS is scored by adding up the responses to 20 true-false questions. The possible score range is 0-20, with higher scores indicating greater hopelessness.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Self-reported quality of life	Quality of life will be assessed by World Health Organization - Quality of Life, Brief WHOQOL-BREF instrument, a 26-item instrument consisting of four domains: physical health (7 items), psychological health (6 items), social relationships (3 items), and environmental health (8 items); it also contains QOL and general health items. Each individual item of the WHOQOL-BREF is scored from 1 to 5 on a response scale, which is stipulated as a five-point ordinal scale. The scores are then transformed linearly to a 0-100-scale with higher scores indicating a better quality of life.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Valued living	Valued living will be assessed with the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ) focusing on 10 valued domains of living which include (1) family, (2) marriage/couples, intimate relations, (3) parenting, (4) friendship, (5) work, (6) education, (7) recreation, (8) spirituality, (9) citizenship, and (10) physical self-care. Each domain is rated on a scale of 1-10, based on the level of importance to the respondent and the extent to which they have lived consistent with their values in the past week. A total score is calculated by multiplying the importance and consistency ratings for each domain, and then averaging those scores. Total scores range from 10 to 100 with higher scores indicating greater alignment with one's values.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
IPV	Experiences of IPV from past or a current intimate partner will be measured using subscales of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-2). The physical aggression (12 items), psychological aggression (8 items), and sexual coercion (7 items) subscales include 27 items regarding the frequency of different IPV experiences (0=this has never happened, 1=1 time, 2=2 times, 3=3-5 times, 4=6-10 times, 5=11-20 times, and 6=20+ times). Items are summed for a total frequency score. Additionally, the number of different IPV behaviors experienced can be tallied to reflect a indicate the number of different IPV behaviors experienced. Higher scores reflect greater levels of IPV experience.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Measure of Victim Empowerment Related to Safety	Safety-related Empowerment will be measured with the Measure of Victim Empowerment Related to Safety (MOVERS), a 13- item measure that consists of three subscales: internal resources (6 items), expectations of support (4 items), and trade-offs (3 items), with response options on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being "never true" and 5 being "always true" for each internal resource and expectation of support subscale question. Responses options for the trade-off subscale are reverse scored with 1 = Always true and 5= Never true. Total possible scores can range from 13 to 65, with higher scores indicating higher levels of empowerment.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
Health care and social service use	Items adapted from the National Survey of Veterans and prior studies examining health and social service use among individuals experiencing IPV, particularly in terms of VA and non-VHA psychosocial health services (e.g., mental health, housing, domestic violence agencies). The number and types of psychosocial treatment services will be examined.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months. 9 months, 12 months, 15 months
VHA health care use	VHA health care use will be extracted from the electronic medical records. The types and number of services used, particularly psychosocial health services, will be examined.	12 months before baseline, 12 months after baseline
Treatment satisfaction	Treatment satisfaction will be assessed using the 8-item Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8). Possible scores range from 8 to 32, with higher values indicating higher treatment satisfaction.	3 months
Perceived Benefits/Harms	Perceived benefits/harms from participating in the interventions will be measured using 6 items adapted from prior studies. Possible responses on a Likert scale range from 1= strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree, with item 4 reverse scored. Individual item scores and total scores will be examined.	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston University
• Collaborators: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; VA Boston Healthcare System; VA Philadelphia Healthcare System; VA Minnesota Healthcare System
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Katherine M Iverson, PhD, V Boston Healthcare System, BU CASchool Medicine Psychiatry; Principal Investigator: Melissa Dichter, PhD MSW, VA Philadelphia Healthcare System

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 15, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 1, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 1, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): April 2, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 14, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 9, 2025
• Last Verified: October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Depression; Self-efficacy; RISE; Enhanced Care as Usual (ECAU); Healthcare patients; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD)
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders; Behavioral Symptoms; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Behavior; Depression; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Other Study ID Numbers: H-45215; BPS-2023C2-33320 (Other Grant/Funding Number: PCORI)

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