Spouse READI (Resilience Education And Deployment Information) Post Deployment Telephone Support Groups

Memphis VA Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Coping Skills; Military Personnel; Spouses

Treatments: Behavioral: Telephone Discussion Groups; Behavioral: Education sessions

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01121250

W81XWH-09-1-0242

Details and patient eligibility

About

This 12-month study is for spouses or significant others of service members who have returned from Afghanistan or Iraq. This study will determine if participating in a telephone discussion group, offering education, skills building, and support, will help increase post-deployment adjustment. There will be 225 spouses recruited for this study.

Enrollment: 228 patients

Sex: Female

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. have a spouse who participated in a deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan and is at least 1 month post-deployment
2. if not married, must have lived as married for at least one year
3. must be committed to the relationship
4. have a telephone.

Exclusion criteria

1. known deployment of spouse in the next six months
2. auditory impairment that would make telephone use difficult.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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228 participants in 3 patient groups

Telephone Discussion Groups

Experimental group

Description:

Each telephone discussion group will meet 12 times during six months. The one-hour calls will be semi-structured conference calls with education, training in coping skills and cognitive restructuring, and support. A Participant Workbook will include comprehensive materials for all sessions and topics, other resources, and red flag resources - areas that may exacerbate problems, add a level of difficulty or distress, and/or indicate a need for referrals (e.g., unsafe behaviors, substance abuse, spouse abuse, PTSD, depression, traumatic brain injury).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Telephone Discussion Groups

Education sessions

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will have 12 sessions (delivered using slides and telephone) that cover the same education content, without skills building or support, over six months. They will also receive the Participant Workbook.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Education sessions

Usual Care

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants do not receive any services.