Improving Success in a Veterans Homeless Domiciliary Vocational Program: Model Development and Evaluation.

Objective: Determine predictors of success in a vocational rehabilitation component of a Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Program. Design: The 1st of 2 experiments evaluated risk factors for failure to find competitive employment. The 2nd assessed attainment of employment following program changes based on identified risk factors. Participants: Eighty-four and 82 homeless veterans in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Results/Experiment 1: Eight factors were found to be significant and were combined into a Risk Factor Scale. Results/Experiment 2: The authors assigned patients to a competitive job-search-only track or a hybrid program combining competitive job search and the potential for supported employment. Overall employment rates increased, and success rates for those seeking only competitive employment rose. Employment rates of those unlikely to find competitive employment increased. Conclusion: Findings demonstrated the effect of developing systematic data on risk factors for failing to find employment, implementing changes based on the data, and applying the benefit of these changes to program functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)