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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Blending traditional vocational services and Individualized Placement and Support for formerly incarcerated veterans (LePage et al. 2020)

Review Guidelines

Causal Evidence Guidelines

Absence of conflict of interest.

Citation

LePage, J. P., Crawford, A. M., Cipher, D. J., Anderson, K., Rock, A., Johnson, J. A. P., ... & Ottomanelli, L. (2020). Blending traditional vocational services and Individualized Placement and Support for formerly incarcerated veterans. Psychiatric Services, 71(8), 816-823.

Highlights

  • The study’s objective was to examine the effect of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) program on earnings and employment outcomes for justice-involved veterans with at least one prior felony conviction and a diagnosed mental illness or substance abuse disorder.
  • The study used a randomized controlled trial design to examine the differences between justice-involved veterans who received IPS programming and justice-involved veterans who received traditional vocational rehabilitation programming. Using survey data, the authors conducted statistical tests to compare outcomes.
  • The study found statistically significant relationships between the IPS program and increased earnings, employment, and amount of time employed.
  • The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high because it was based on a well-implemented randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to Individual Placement and Support, and not to other factors.

Intervention Examined

Individual Placement and Support (IPS)

Features of the Intervention

The IPS program is a vocational model focused on supportive employment programming for populations with significant barriers to employment. The program is based on several core principles that include rapid job search, small caseloads, and the integration of vocational and mental health treatment services. Participants received specialized job search assistance and ongoing work-based vocational assessment. This study implemented IPS with justice-involved veterans who have a history of incarceration and a diagnosed substance use disorder or mental illness. To support this population, the study authors modified the original IPS program to also include programming from the About Face (AF) model. AF is a one-week vocational rehabilitation program in which participants create resumes and discuss strategies to overcome barriers to employment following previous incarceration. Participants focused on developing strategies to discuss their incarceration within the context of employment, identify concrete employment skills, and practice interviewing techniques. Both the treatment and comparison group participants received AF vocational programming, but the treatment group also received IPS programming.

Features of the Study

The study used a randomized controlled trial to examine differences between justice-involved veterans who were offered the AF and IPS program and justice-involved veterans who only received AF programming. Of the 111 eligible veterans with a minimum of one felony conviction, approximately 46 percent of participants were randomly assigned to the AF comparison group, while the remaining 54 percent of participants were randomized to the AF + IPS treatment group. The participants were mainly male, were a racial-ethnic minority, and had experienced a substance use disorder. The intervention was conducted through a total of 27 vocational groups from 2012 to 2015 at a large U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs health care facility. The primary data source were baseline surveys reporting on employment and earnings outcomes and follow-up survey updates on the outcomes. The authors verified the self-report data via pay stubs and communications with employers and used statistical tests to examine differences between the groups.

Findings

Earnings and wages

  • The study found that participants in the IPS treatment group earned more than twice the income of the AF control group. This finding was statistically significant.
  • Additionally, the study found that median pay per hour for IPS program participants was significantly higher than their AF group counterparts.

Employment

  • The study found a positive significant relationship between the IPS treatment and obtaining employment within one year of treatment.
  • The study also found that participants in the IPS treatment group obtained employment faster by two months on average when compared to the AF control group. This finding was statistically significant.
  • The study found that the IPS program participants worked more hours and had almost double the rates of full-time employment following the treatment program when compared to the AF participants. These findings were statistically significant.
  • Additionally, the study found that participants in the AFVP+IPS treatment group found higher rates of stable employment (employed at the same place for 3 months), although these results did not have statistical significance.

Causal Evidence Rating

The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high because it was based on a well-implemented randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the IPS program, and not to other factors.

Reviewed by CLEAR

June 2022

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