Homeless Persons, Mentally Ill Persons, Veterans
Conditions
Keywords
Social Skills, Housing
Brief summary
Many homeless Veterans with serious mental illness (SMI) enroll in the VA's Supported Housing (VASH) program but struggle to obtain and sustain housing. Social skills are an important-but underappreciated-determinant of housing outcomes for homeless adults. The investigators hypothesize that homeless Veterans with SMI who participate in a social skills training program, tailored for housing-related social skills, will obtain housing quicker, retain housing longer, and show improved mental health outcomes compared to Veterans with similar needs not participating in such a program.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALHousing Skills Training Group
12-session social skills training group for persons with homeless experiences and serious mental illness delivered once a week for 12 weeks
Sponsors
VA Office of Research and Development
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Identified by VA Greater Los Angeles homeless program staff as a participant in Housing Skills Training: * Must have a history of homelessness * Must be a Veteran over the age of 18 years * Must have a serious mental illness (mood disorder, anxiety disorder, psychotic disorder)
Exclusion criteria
None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Client Satisfaction Questionnaire - 8 | 12 weeks after baseline assessment at start of intervention | Acceptability of the intervention to participants Scores range from 8 to 32, with higher values indicating higher satisfaction (no specific cut-offs to indicate specific levels of satisfaction) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Percent Days Housed for One Year After Intervention Completion | 1 year | We will use the medical record, augmented by the residential time line follow back, to assess longitudinal housing outcomes for Veterans receiving this intervention |
Countries
United States
Participant flow
Pre-assignment details
Providers were not enrolled in the study. The investigators collected outcome data about perceived impressions / satisfaction with the intervention, from providers, but did not collect any information about their baseline characteristics (these were providers who provided this intervention as part of routine clinical care in an implementation pilot but who were not engaged in research) and do not consider them an arm in this intervention or those outcomes to be part of this clinical trial
Participants by arm
| Arm | Count |
|---|---|
| Housing Skills Training Patients Homeless Veterans with serious mental illness who are inpatient at the VA Greater Los Angeles Domiciliary or enrolled in a VA Supported Housing (VASH) program and participating in a Housing Skills Training Group as part of routine clinical care. Though providers completed one outcome variable for this study to report on their satisfaction with the intervention (an early implementation outcome) they were not considered a distinct arm in this trial. | 35 |
| Total | 35 |
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | Housing Skills Training Patients |
|---|---|
| Age, Continuous | 54.3 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 12.2 |
| Current housing status Sheltered housing | 27 Participants |
| Current housing status Stable housing | 7 Participants |
| Current housing status Unsheltered homeless | 1 Participants |
| Mental health diagnoses Anxiety disorders | 4 participants |
| Mental health diagnoses Bipolar disorders | 1 participants |
| Mental health diagnoses Depression | 21 participants |
| Mental health diagnoses Post-traumatic stress disorder | 20 participants |
| Mental health diagnoses Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders | 4 participants |
| Percent service-connected disability 0% | 11 Participants |
| Percent service-connected disability 10-30% | 3 Participants |
| Percent service-connected disability 40-60% | 6 Participants |
| Percent service-connected disability 70-100% | 15 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Ethnicity : Decline to state | 1 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Ethnicity : Hispanic or Latino | 2 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Ethnicity : Not Hispanic or Latino | 32 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Race: African American | 24 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Race: Multiracial | 1 Participants |
| Race/Ethnicity, Customized Race: White | 10 Participants |
| Region of Enrollment United States | 35 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Female | 4 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Male | 31 Participants |
| Substance use disorders Alcohol use disorders | 19 participants |
| Substance use disorders Drug use disorders | 27 participants |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk |
|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 35 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 35 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 35 |
Outcome results
Primary
Client Satisfaction Questionnaire - 8
Acceptability of the intervention to participants Scores range from 8 to 32, with higher values indicating higher satisfaction (no specific cut-offs to indicate specific levels of satisfaction)
Time frame: 12 weeks after baseline assessment at start of intervention
Population: Only 16 patients agreed to fill out this voluntary outcome measure at the completion of the intervention
| Arm | Measure | Value (MEAN) | Dispersion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Skills Training Patients | Client Satisfaction Questionnaire - 8 | 26.2 score on a scale | Standard Deviation 4.1 |
Secondary
Percent Days Housed for One Year After Intervention Completion
We will use the medical record, augmented by the residential time line follow back, to assess longitudinal housing outcomes for Veterans receiving this intervention
Time frame: 1 year
Population: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to engage in face-to-face interaction with participants to obtain 1-year post intervention housing data