Clinical trial NCT01430741: MISSION-Vet HUD-VASH Implementation Study
Official title: MISSION-Vet HUD-VASH Implementation Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Substance Related Disorders
Mental Illness
Keywords: Implementation Science
Supportive Housing
Co-occurring disorders
Cluster randomized controlled trial
Hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial
Lead sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Sponsor class: FED
First posted: 2011-09-08
Enrollment: 227
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: A major goal for the Department of Veterans Affairs is to end Veteran homelessness by 2015. The VA's largest homelessness initiative is the joint Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) Supportive Housing program (HUD-VASH), which has been expanded greatly over recent years via the allocation of 30,000 Housing First vouchers between 2008 and 2010 and increased funding to hire 1,000 new program case managers. However, recent expansion has resulted in a number of implementation challenges including delays in the distribution of housing vouchers and dropout among program participants (25% of those housed in HUD-VASH drop out within a year). Much of this dropout can be attributed to untreated issues facing many Veterans enrolled in HUD-VASH. The most common among these untreated issues are mental health and substance use disorders. The presence of these disorders is due in large part to the fact that much of HUD-VASH case management focuses on housing placement and maintenance, with limited attention to mental health, substance abuse, and other related psychosocial issues, which when left untreated, negatively impacts voucher distribution and housing stability. This project will test an implementation model-Getting To Outcomes (GTO)-designed to assist in the delivery of an intervention for Veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MISSION-Vet) in the HUD-VASH program. The proposed study will compare implementation of MISSION-Vet currently being planned through VA Office of Patient Care Services to an enhanced approach using the GTO model. Thus, this project can contribute to ending all Veteran homelessness by 2015, a pledge made by President Obama.

Detailed description: This project tests an implementation platform-Getting To Outcomes (GTO)-designed to assist in the delivery of an evidence-based intervention for Veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MISSION-Vet) in the HUD-VASH program. This project will be a cluster randomized controlled trial that compares implementation of MISSION-Vet augmented by GTO to MISSION-Vet Implemented as Usual (IU) at three of the largest HUD-VASH programs in the country: VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System (Northampton, MA), VA Capitol Health Care Network (Washington, D.C.), and VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System (Denver, CO). This project will randomly assign 150 HUD-VASH case managers and 1106 Veterans on their caseloads who have received HUD-VASH vouchers and case management services into these two groups on a 1-year rolling admission basis determined by when the Veteran receives a housing voucher. The control group will receive MISSION-Vet in addition to HUD-VASH case management services and the intervention group will receive the same as the control, however the HUD-VASH case manager will have access to GTO implementation support.

To compare case managers implementing MISSION-Vet augmented with GTO to HUD-VASH case managers using IU strategies on the following variables: (1) fidelity to the MISSION-Vet intervention; (2) proportion of time the Veteran is housed; (3) mental health, substance use, and functional outcomes among Veterans; and (4) factors key to the successful deployment of a new treatment as specified by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, \& Maintenance (RE-AIM) model.

Data will be collected on fidelity to MISSION-Vet in both IU and GTO groups. Data will also be collected on all subjects' substance use, overall mental health functioning, engagement in substance abuse treatment services, the length of time housed, and community participation. The investigators will collect data from individuals at baseline and three time points for up to one year. The investigators' data analysis strategy will be to use a repeated-measures model to test for the significance of the treatment-by-time interaction while accounting for the clustered design of case manager within site.

This study intends to serve a dual function of comparing implementation of MISSION-Vet currently being planned through VA Office of Patient Care Services to an enhanced implementation approach using the GTO model. The proposed research will help to guide policy and practice actions to implement MISSION-Vet with fidelity and effectiveness to achieve maximum outcomes among homeless Veterans.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

VA HUD-VASH case manager at the Northampton, Denver, and Washington D.C. HUD-VASH programs

Exclusion Criteria:

N/A

Primary outcomes:
measure: MISSION Fidelity Index
timeFrame: 12-months
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Denver
country: United States
facility: VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Denver, CO
state: Colorado
city: Washington
country: United States
facility: VA Central Office - HSR&D, Washington, DC
state: District of Columbia
city: Bedford
country: United States
facility: Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA
state: Massachusetts
city: Leeds
country: United States
facility: VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System, Leeds, MA
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA
name: David A. Smelson, PsyD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA
name: Matthew J. Chinman, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: O K, Kline A, Sawh L, Fisher W, Rodrigues S, Kane V, Kuhn J, Ellison ML, Smelson DA. Unemployment and Co-occurring Disorders Among Homeless Veterans. Journal of Dual Diagnosis. 2013 Mar 27; 9(2):134-138.
citation: Smelson DA, Kline A, Kuhn J, Rodrigues S, O'Connor K, Fisher W, Sawh L, Kane V. A wraparound treatment engagement intervention for homeless veterans with co-occurring disorders. Psychol Serv. 2013 May;10(2):161-7. doi: 10.1037/a0030948. Epub 2012 Dec 17.
citation: McInnes DK, Sawh L, Petrakis BA, Rao S, Shimada SL, Eyrich-Garg KM, Gifford AL, Anaya HD, Smelson DA. The potential for health-related uses of mobile phones and internet with homeless veterans: results from a multisite survey. Telemed J E Health. 2014 Sep;20(9):801-9. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2013.0329. Epub 2014 Jul 21.
citation: Smelson DA, Chinman M, McCarthy S, Hannah G, Sawh L, Glickman M. A cluster randomized Hybrid Type III trial testing an implementation support strategy to facilitate the use of an evidence-based practice in VA homeless programs. Implement Sci. 2015 May 28;10:79. doi: 10.1186/s13012-015-0267-4.
citation: Chinman M, McCarthy S, Hannah G, Byrne TH, Smelson DA. Using Getting To Outcomes to facilitate the use of an evidence-based practice in VA homeless programs: a cluster-randomized trial of an implementation support strategy. Implement Sci. 2017 Mar 9;12(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s13012-017-0565-0.
citation: Smelson DA, Chinman M, Hannah G, Byrne T, McCarthy S. An evidence-based co-occurring disorder intervention in VA homeless programs: outcomes from a hybrid III trial. BMC Health Serv Res. 2018 May 5;18(1):332. doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3123-9.