Psychiatric Problem Clinical Trial
Official title:
Improving Money Management Skills for Veterans With Psychiatric Disabilities
Veterans with psychiatric disabilities face unique challenges concerning money management. Financial strain, money mismanagement, and homelessness have been well documented among veterans with psychiatric disabilities and linked to poor outcomes. The investigators' long-term goal is to promote recovery among veterans with psychiatric disabilities by addressing an 'unmet need' of developing basic money skills necessary for independent functioning in living, working, and social environments. The investigators' objective in the current application is to rigorously evaluate a pilot-tested, stakeholder-informed intervention grounded in principles of psychiatric rehabilitation designed to help develop money management skills and informed financial judgment among veterans with psychiatric disabilities. $teps for Achieving Financial Empowerment ($AFE) is an individualized, psycho-educational intervention that aims to teach veterans with psychiatric disabilities how to save money, create a viable budget, avoid money scams and financial exploitation, and access vocational and mental health resources. To evaluate the $AFE, the investigators will randomly assign N=200 veterans with psychiatric disabilities to either (a) the $AFE intervention (n=100); or (b) a "usual care" control (n=100). The investigators will interview veterans with psychiatric disabilities at baseline and six months. The investigators' central hypothesis, based on strong preliminary data, is that by fostering financial skills and judgment, the $AFE will concurrently increase employment, boost work motivation, and reduce disablement. If these outcomes are met, the investigators hypothesize the intervention will also lead to reduced psychiatric symptoms and homelessness among veterans with psychiatric disabilities.
Veterans with psychiatric disabilities face unique challenges concerning money management.
Not only do they encounter problems as do non-veterans with psychiatric disabilities; for
example, they may possess limited financial experience due to longstanding dependence on
family or have limited money skills related to cognitive deficits. But since veterans can
receive disability benefits from both the Veteran's Administration (VA) and the Social
Security Administration (SSA), the added income paradoxically exposes veterans to greater
risk of severe debt and financial exploitation. To compound this problem, VA and SSA policies
for working while disabled differ, often change, and thus can be misunderstood in ways that
potentially reduce incentives to seek employment.
Financial strain, money mismanagement, and homelessness have been well documented among
veterans with psychiatric disabilities and linked to poor outcomes. Hundreds of thousands of
veterans have psychiatric disabilities - a number likely to grow as a substantial proportion
of troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet little systematic research has examined how
to help veterans with psychiatric disabilities learn tangible skills needed to maintain
financial stability in the community. Our long-term goal is to promote recovery among
veterans with psychiatric disabilities by addressing an 'unmet need' of developing basic
money skills necessary for independent functioning in living, working, and social
environments.
Our objective in the current application is to rigorously evaluate a pilot-tested,
stakeholder-informed intervention grounded in principles of psychiatric rehabilitation
designed to help develop money management skills and informed financial judgment among
veterans with psychiatric disabilities. $teps for Achieving Financial Empowerment ($AFE) is
an individualized, psycho-educational intervention that aims to teach veterans with
psychiatric disabilities how to save money, create a viable budget, avoid money scams and
financial exploitation, and access vocational and mental health resources.
To evaluate the $AFE, the investigators will randomly assign N=200 veterans with psychiatric
disabilities to either (a) the $AFE intervention (n=100); or (b) a "usual care" control
(n=100). The investigators will interview veterans with psychiatric disabilities at baseline
and six months. Our central hypothesis, based on strong preliminary data, is that by
fostering financial skills and judgment, the $AFE will concurrently increase employment,
boost work motivation, and reduce disablement. If these outcomes are met, the investigators
hypothesize the intervention will also lead to reduced psychiatric symptoms and homelessness
among veterans with psychiatric disabilities.
The investigators are well prepared to pursue this study because of our peer-reviewed
research in this area and success in completing large-scale empirical studies of veterans and
non-veterans with psychiatric disabilities. The current research is innovative because it
will lead to a brief, targeted, cost-effective, feasible procedure for helping veterans
potentially become less reliant on disability funds and more likely to work, gaining
independence in the community.
At the end of this project, the investigators expect to show that a systematic,
evidence-based approach can greatly bolster self-determination and empowerment for veterans
with psychiatric disabilities. The investigators plan to construct a user-friendly,
transportable manual so clinicians can readily implement the $AFE intervention. The
investigators anticipate the primary impact of this study will be evaluation of a novel and
effective method to promote independent living and employment and maximize full society
integration among veterans with psychiatric disabilities.
;
Status | Clinical Trial | Phase | |
---|---|---|---|
Completed |
NCT02972853 -
Mindful Self-Regulation fMRI Pilot Study
|
N/A | |
Not yet recruiting |
NCT04395872 -
Psychiatric Consultation for COVID-19 Patients
|
||
Not yet recruiting |
NCT04792671 -
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Women Mental Health Disorders
|
||
Enrolling by invitation |
NCT04763720 -
Implementing Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) - Evaluation Research
|
||
Suspended |
NCT05795452 -
Environmental Mixtures, Cognitive Control and Reward Processes, and Risk for Psychiatric Problems in Adolescence
|