Pathways to vocational services: factors affecting entry by veterans enrolled in Veterans Health Administration mental health services.

The current study provides naturalistic data documenting the pathways-to-care to vocational services for 155 veterans who were receiving some form of mental health care from the Veterans Health Administration and had a vocational need but were not currently enrolled in vocational services. Of the participants, 94.2% had recognized their vocational need, 80.

Adding contingency management intervention to vocational rehabilitation: outcomes for dually diagnosed veterans.

In this random-assignment trial, we evaluated the efficacy of using a contingency management (CM) intervention to enhance job acquisition and tenure among participants of a vocational rehabilitation (VR) program. The CM intervention offered participants cash incentives up to $1,170 for completing tasks related to sobriety and job search and maintenance. Participants were 100 veterans with comorbid psychiatric disorders and substance dependence who were randomly assigned either to VR only or VR + CM.

The impact of enhanced incentives on vocational rehabilitation outcomes for dually diagnosed veterans.

This study evaluated the efficacy of adding contingency management techniques to vocational rehabilitation (VR) to improve treatment outcome as measured by entry into competitive employment. Nineteen dually diagnosed veterans who entered VR in the Veterans' Administration's compensated work therapy (CWT) program were randomly assigned to CWT (n = 8) or to CWT with enhanced incentives (n = 11). Over the first 16 weeks of rehabilitation, those in the incentives condition could earn up to dollar 1,006 in cash for meeting two sets of clinical goals: (a) remaining abstinent from drugs and alcohol and (b) taking steps to obtain and maintain a competitive job.

Building the future: psychosocial rehabilitation with a Veterans Construction Team.

The Veterans Construction Team (VCT) is an innovative form of Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) for unemployed, homeless veterans who have had a history of substance abuse and/or a serious mental or medical illness. The VCT model builds social support and self-esteem, while delivering tangible services to public entities and providing a relatively high rate of pay and exceptional opportunities for skill development. This brief report outlines the VCT model, reviews VCTs development and operations, and describes participant reactions.

Clinical care of gambling disorders: training, experience, and competence among VHA psychologists.

Problem gambling is a common, highly destructive disorder which is often overlooked by clinicians. Levels of clinical training, clinical experience, and professional competence for providing clinical services for problem gambling were examined in a survey of 181 clinical psychologists working in the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA). The results suggest that the majority of clinical psychologists have little or no formal training and little or no past or current clinical experience in the treatment of disordered gambling, nor do they see themselves as competent to evaluate or treat patients with disordered gambling.