Skip to main content

Abstract

Objective:

Employment rates among individuals with serious mental illness may be improved by engagement in the individual placement and support (IPS) model of supported employment. Results from a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) indicate that virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) improves employment rates among individuals with serious mental illness who have been actively engaged in IPS for at least 90 days. This study reports on an initial implementation evaluation of VR-JIT during the RCT in a community mental health agency.

Methods:

A sequential, complementary mixed-methods design included use of qualitative data to improve understanding of quantitative findings. Thirteen IPS staff trained to lead VR-JIT implementation completed VR-JIT acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility surveys. Participants randomly assigned to IPS with VR-JIT completed acceptability (N=42) and usability (N=28) surveys after implementation. The authors also conducted five focus groups with IPS staff (N=11) and VR-JIT recipients (N=13) and semistructured interviews with IPS staff (N=9) and VR-JIT recipients (N=4), followed by an integrated analysis process.

Results:

Quantitative results suggest that IPS staff found VR-JIT to be highly acceptable, appropriate for integration with IPS, and feasible for delivery. VR-JIT was highly acceptable to recipients. Qualitative results add important context to the quantitative findings, including benefits of VR-JIT for IPS staff as well as adaptations for delivering technology-based interventions to individuals with serious mental illness.

Conclusions:

These qualitative and quantitative findings are consistent with each other and were influenced by VR-JIT’s adaptability and perceived benefits. Tailoring VR-JIT instruction and delivery to individuals with serious mental illness may help optimize VR-JIT implementation within IPS.

Get full access to this content

View all available purchase options and get full access to this content.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 228 - 236
PubMed: 37644829

History

Received: 17 January 2023
Revision received: 2 May 2023
Revision received: 19 June 2023
Accepted: 14 July 2023
Published online: 30 August 2023
Published in print: March 01, 2024

Keywords

  1. Schizophrenia
  2. Bipolar disorder
  3. Community mental health services
  4. Virtual job interview training
  5. Psychiatric rehabilitation

Authors

Details

Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. M. J. Smith (mattjsmi@umich.edu).
A summary of the results from this study was included in a presentation at the 2023 Society for Social Work and Research annual meeting, Phoenix, January 11–15, 2023.

Competing Interests

The data reported in this manuscript were collected as part of a trial evaluating the original version of virtual reality job interview training.
Dr. M. J. Smith reports receiving royalty payments from SIMmersion L.L.C. for a youth-focused version of the virtual job interview intervention and receiving speaker honoraria for invited presentations from Hartford Healthcare, Ohio State University, Rush University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Boston University, University of Utah, and The Help Group. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Funding Information

This project was supported by funding from NIMH (R01 MH-110524; principal investigator: M. J. Smith).

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Format
Citation style
Style
Copy to clipboard

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share article link

Share

Get Access

Get Access

Login options

Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.

Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens login
Purchase Options

Purchase this article to access the full text.

PPV Articles - Psychiatric Services

PPV Articles - Psychiatric Services

Not a subscriber?

Subscribe Now / Learn More

PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.

Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing PsychiatryOnline@psych.org or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).

References

References