Impact of VVV Group for Veterans With SMI

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Veterans; Psychotic Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Support group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT05562674

D4376-P

Details and patient eligibility

About

Veterans with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) struggle with social integration - participation in work, housing, and citizenship - due to symptoms, stigma, and psychosocial challenges. Despite considerable VA efforts to provide mental health care to Veterans with SMI, programs that promote social integration are lacking. Veterans with SMI are at especially high risk for poor social integration and suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project addresses this need with a group-based, peer specialist (PS) co-facilitated psychosocial intervention for Veterans with SMI, called "Veteran Voices and Visions" (VVV). VVV targets Veterans with SMI who experience psychosis, a group particularly in need of support with social integration. Virtual VVV groups are co-led by VA mental health clinicians (MHCs) and PSs via online video conference. The approach facilitates group cohesion around and normalization of the common psychotic symptoms of SMI: hallucinations, delusions, and social isolation. This intervention has the potential to create and foster a supportive community that improves the social integration of participants by reducing their distress and self-stigma, and increasing self-efficacy.

Enrollment: 38 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• DSM 5 diagnoses of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar with psychosis, depression with psychosis, unspecified psychosis

Exclusion criteria

• Substance-induced psychosis,
• clinically significant neurological disease,
• history of serious head injury with loss of consciousness > 1 hour.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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38 participants in 1 patient group

Veteran Voices & Visions (VVV)

Experimental group

Description:

This is the experimental condition, testing the manual the investigators have developed.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Support group