Supported Employment (SE) is an evidenced based method that has been shown to increase employment rates in adults with severe mental illness (SMI). Despite the success of this program, more than 80% of adults with SMI remain unemployed. A limitation of SE is the job interview component, which utilizes staff-led role- play training. Many adults with SMI who participate in SE report feeling inadequately prepared for the job interview process. To fill this training need, our group recently completed a series of studies funded by NIMH to develop and test the efficacy of a virtual reality job interview training program (VR). The results demonstrated that the intervention was efficacious at improving job interview skills and receiving a job offer within 6 months of completing the training simulation. Thus, the overarching goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality job interview skills training program (VR) in a large community-based mental health service provider via a randomized controlled trial and process evaluation. Thus, our aims are to 1) Evaluate whether SE+VR compared to SE Only enhances SE outcomes; 2) Evaluate mechanisms of employment outcomes and psychological distress; and 3) Conduct a multilevel, multidisciplinary, and mixed- method process evaluation of VR adoption and implementation to assess the acceptability, scalability, generalizability, and affordability of VR.
This project has high relevance for public health and service by evaluating the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a virtual reality job interview training program for adults with severe mental illness currently enrolled in Individual Placement and Support (the standardized version of Supported Employment (SE)). This project will be the first in a series of studies to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of virtual reality programs as a means to enhance vocational outcomes in community-based treatment settings.
| Smith, Matthew J; Smith, Justin D; Fleming, Michael F et al. (2017) Mechanism of Action for Obtaining Job Offers With Virtual Reality Job Interview Training. Psychiatr Serv 68:747-750 |
| Massey, Suena H; Stern, Daniel; Alden, Eva C et al. (2017) Cortical thickness of neural substrates supporting cognitive empathy in individuals with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 179:119-124 |
