Do Consumer Providers Enhance Recovery?

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Mental Disorder

In brief

Serious mental illness (SMI) is the second most costly disorder treated in the VHA, yet clinical outcomes for these patients in public sector settings are often poor due to a combination of low quality care and severe cognitive and functional impairments evidenced by this group. While these problems are multifaceted, studies outside the VHA have shown that using "consumer providers" (CPs) can improve and augment public care. Similar to recovering addiction counselors, CPs are individuals with SMI who use their lived experiences to provide services to others with SMI. CPs can reach out to patients that are difficult to engage, assist patients with tasks of daily living, offer a variety of rehabilitation (vocational, social, residential) services, be role models and offer hope for recovery, and facilitate support groups. Randomized controlled and quasi-experimental trials, all done outside the VHA, have shown that CPs can provide services that yield at least equivalent patient outcomes with particular benefits noted on intensive case management teams. Based on these successes both the President's New Freedom Commission and the Veteran Administration's Mental Health Strategic Plan call for broader dissemination of CPs as way to make mental health services more recovery-oriented, a recent national priority. Because of these recent calls, employing mentally ill veterans has just begun, although no effort has been made to evaluate their impact inside the VA mental health system. Yet its success outside the VHA and the recent emphasis on recovery-oriented care suggests the need to test this model in the VHA.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00781079

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

285

Starts

2008-04-01

Expected to finish

2012-01-01

Last updated by the study team

2018-10-11

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Patient must have a Serious Mental Illness;
• Patient must be working with a VA Intensive Case Management team

You may not qualify if…

• Prior exposure to intervention; Reduced capacity;
• Patient is no longer working with a VA Intensive Case Management

Where it is running

• VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA — Loma Linda, California, United States
• VA Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA — Long Beach, California, United States
• VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA — San Diego, California, United States
• VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, CA — West Los Angeles, California, United States
• Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN — Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
• VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System, North Las Vegas, NV — Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
• VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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