Homeless Female Offenders Returning to the Community

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Drug Addiction

In brief

In Phase I of this R34, the team from the University of California Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Irvine researchers plan to utilize the successful community participatory approaches to refine a gender-sensitive criminogenic needs -focused intervention program, Female Ex-Offender Mentoring in Care (FEM-CARE), with the help of a community advisory board, composed of homeless female offenders (HFOs) and addiction staff; and finalize strategies which will be validated by focus group sessions with the HFOs. In Phase 2, the research team will randomize 130 HFOs participating in one of two residential drug treatment programs to assess the impact of the FEM-CARE or a Health Promotion control program on reduction of drug and alcohol use and recidivism. This study is based upon our team's history of promoting theoretically-based, culturally sensitive nurse-led interventions that are enriched with criminal justice theoretical perspectives, and have resulted in significant reductions in drug and alcohol use among homeless persons, many of whom have had a history of incarceration. Specifically, the study aims are: AIM 1) Guided by a Community Advisory Board (CAB) made up of HFOs and addiction staff, further conceptualize our community-based program, Female Ex-Offender Mentoring in Care (FEM-CARE), to address the needs and risks of HFOs enrolled in RDT programs, and then refine the program in focus group discussions with 12 HFOs. AIM 2) Conduct a pilot RCT to assess the impact of the FEM-CARE program for 65 HFOs at six-month follow-up compared with 65 HFOs receiving a control Health Promotion (HP) program, in terms of a) self-reported and/or objective measures of drug and alcohol use; and b) prevalence of recidivism and number of days to first reincarceration. Hypothesis 2a: HFOs in the FEM-CARE program will have less drug and alcohol use at six months than HFOs in the HP control program. Hypothesis 2b: FEM-CARE HFOs will have a lower prevalence of recidivism by six months and greater number of days to first reincarceration than HP control HFOs.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02258425

Run by

University of California, Los Angeles

People needed

130

Starts

2015-01-01

Expected to finish

2016-11-01

Last updated by the study team

2017-06-20

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 55. Sex: female. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• female parolees or probationers enrolled in a six-month program at one of two residential treatment (RDT) programs,
• convicted for a drug crime, and
• reported homeless on their RDT entry form

You may not qualify if…

• female parolees or probationers not currently enrolled in a six-month program at one of two residential treatment (RDT) programs,
• not recently convicted for a drug crime, and
• not reported homeless on their RDT entry form

Where it is running

• Amistad de Los Angeles — Los Angeles, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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