Spinal Cord Diseases, Spinal Cord Injuries
Conditions
Keywords
employment, vocational rehabilitation
Brief summary
For many people with spinal cord injury, seeking employment after injury is an important goal. There are services available to help people with disabilities. However, the best ways to coordinate and deliver these services are not yet known. This project will compare two ways of coordinating and delivering services that are designed to help people with spinal cord injury obtain employment.
Detailed description
Employment is important for financial security, social connection, and life satisfaction. Unfortunately, rates of unemployment remain high among people with spinal cord injury (SCI). To help address this challenge, the Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (NNJSCIS) is conducting a single-site, randomized, controlled trial to compare two programs intended to increase rates of employment among people with SCI. The project will enroll 162 recently injured adults with SCI who are interested in becoming employed or returning to work and will compare different ways of delivering employment-related services in the first year after injury. Services will begin in inpatient rehabilitation and may include education, therapy, equipment provision, counseling, and other interventions. Information about employment status, earnings, community participation, and health will be collected through a combination of questionnaires and databases. Participants and service providers will also share their impressions of the programs via survey and focus groups. Analyses will examine the rate of participants employed at 1 year in each group, time to employment, earnings, community participation, and other aspects of well-being. Findings from this study will be used to determine which ways of delivering services are most effective in enabling employment by 1 year after injury, and to provide information to help other rehabilitation centers adopt effective programs.
Interventions
A counselor affiliated with the New Jersey State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services coordinates services that consider the participant's condition, needs and goals. Services participants may receive include: * Education on programs designed to help people with spinal cord injury or brain injury pursue employment. * Advice and guidance from professional counselors who have special training in helping people with disabilities pursue employment. * Help completing applications for services. * Assistance communicating with my employer about my needs and ways to accommodate them. * Referrals to and services from other health care or technology providers.
A facilitator affiliated with Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation coordinates services that consider the participant's condition, needs and goals. Services participants may receive include: * Education on programs designed to help people with spinal cord injury or brain injury pursue employment. * Advice and guidance from professional counselors who have special training in helping people with disabilities pursue employment. * Help completing applications for services. * Assistance communicating with my employer about my needs and ways to accommodate them. * Referrals to and services from other health care or technology providers.
Sponsors
Kessler Foundation
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 62 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* adults age 18 to 62 * a neurological impairment secondary to an SCI that occurred less than 12 months prior to enrollment * receiving inpatient rehabilitation at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (KIR) * community living in the state of NJ after discharge from KIR * have a goal to pursue competitive integrated employment or education/retraining leading to competitive integrated employment
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Employment Status (Percent Employed) | 12-months post-enrollment | Proportion of participants in each group in competitive employment. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Income | 12-months post-enrollment | Earnings within the first 12 months post-enrollment as obtained from New Jersey Unemployment Insurance (UI) data. |
| Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | 5 item (2 minute) scale that provides global measure of life satisfaction. |
| International SCI Quality of Life Basic Data Set | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | 3 item (\ 1 minute) assessment of satisfaction with life as a whole, physical health, psychological health. |
| Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | Subscales examine several objective physical independence, cognitive independence, mobility, occupation, social integration, and economic self-sufficiency; includes personal care assistance use. |
| Employment Efficiency (Median Time to Employment) | 12-months post-enrollment | Median number of months from date of enrollment to date of competitive integrated employment; obtained through self-report. |
| Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | Measure of depressive symptomology (9 items; 3 minutes). |
| Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life: Self-Esteem | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | 8 item (\<5 minute) short form; assesses emotional, evaluative, and cognitive perceptions of personal competence and worth. |
| Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life: Independence | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | 8 item (\<5 minute) short form. |
| Exit Survey | 12-months post-enrollment | Includes rating scale and open-ended items pertaining to satisfaction with the program and suggestions for optimization of the programs. |
| Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life: Satisfaction with Social Roles and Activities (SCI-QoL) | Assessed at 1 month (baseline), 6, and 12 months post-enrollment. | 10 item short form (\<5 minutes) examining extent of satisfaction or disappointment with social roles and activities; complements CHART. |
Contacts
Primary ContactTrevor Dyson-Hudson, M.D.
Backup ContactJohn O'Neill, Ph.D.
Outcome results
None listed