Recruiting

Veteran Empowerment

Sponsor:

VA Office of Research and Development

Code:

NCT06898879

Conditions

Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective Disorder

Delusional Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Collaborative Decision Skills Training

Leveling Up

Study Details

Brief summary:

Over 60% of Veterans with serious mental illness have a service-connected disability that impairs their ability to work, go to school, and/or have successful personal lives. Although traditional treatments tend to focus on symptom remission, Veterans prioritize a range of treatment goals, including personal empowerment and gaining personally meaningful skills. Increasing Veteran-clinician collaboration can help effectively align care with each Veteran's goals and support an empowering therapeutic experience. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a group-based intervention intended to increase Veterans' comfort, confidence, knowledge, and skills to collaborate with their treatment teams. Findings from this study will contribute important knowledge about this intervention's effectiveness and how to enhance its effectiveness, especially for Veterans from minoritized groups. If the decision-making intervention is effective, it would help Veterans with serious mental illness, and might also help Veterans with other chronic health conditions, like PTSD and chronic pain.

Conditions

Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective Disorder

Delusional Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder

Study ID

NCT06898879

Start date

Aug 12, 2026

Status verified date

Aug, 2026

Completion date

Sep 30, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Apr 3, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Be a Veteran currently receiving Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC), Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) and/or Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP) services at VA San Diego, Los Angeles, or Albuquerque (e.g., seen in the clinic in the past month or based on clinic criteria)
2. Meet Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) criteria of serious mental illness; i.e., "having (within the past year) a diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorder that causes serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities," based on chart review and clinician consultation if needed
3. Be fluent and literate in English
4. Agree to have a subset of VA mental health treatment appointments audiotaped

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Primary substance use or organic neurological disorder diagnosis determined by chart review
2. Are determined by clinician and/or study staff to be at significant risk of exacerbation of symptoms, suicidal ideation, or other risk due to study participation
3. Have a history and/or current risk of violence that clinicians and/or study staff determine to be too high risk to manage effectively in the study setting (e.g., poses a risk to Veterans or study staff)

Study Design

Enrollment

119 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Collaborative Decision Skills Training

Collaborative Decision Skills Training (CDST) is the intervention group (experimental arm).

active comparator: Leveling Up

Leveling Up is the active control arm.

Interventions

Collaborative Decision Skills Training

An ten-session group-based skills training intervention that focuses on treatment-related decision-making in order to facilitate improved engagement in decision-making processes. CDST teaches assertiveness skills, problem solving, goal planning, and conflict negotiation, within the context of treatment planning and decision-making. Each session is 60 minutes long.

Leveling Up

An ten-session group intervention that focuses on psychoeducation, befriending, and Veteran to Veteran support. Each session is 60 minutes long.

Primary outcome measure

  • Shared Decision-Making Coding System [ Time Frame: Baseline to 3-month follow-up ]
  • Shared Decision-Making Coding System [ Time Frame: Baseline to 6-month follow-up ]
  • Consumer-Created Opportunities for Active Involvement Coding System [ Time Frame: Baseline to 3-month follow-up ]
  • Consumer-Created Opportunities for Active Involvement Coding System [ Time Frame: Baseline to 6-month follow-up ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Emily Treichler, PhD

(858) 552-8585Emily.Treichler@va.gov

Locations

New Mexico VA Health Care System, Albuquerque, NM

Recruiting

Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, 87108-5153

Contacts

Kate Belon, PhD

505-265-1711Katherine.Belon@va.gov

More Information

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Last update posted

Aug 19, 2026

Last verified

Aug, 2026

Keywords

  • serious mental illness
  • psychosis
  • collaborative decision-making
  • shared decision-making
  • veterans
  • recovery
  • personal recovery
  • empowerment

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by VA Office of Research and Development on 2026-08-19.