Grants and Projects
Highlighted projects from the last 10 years are included below.
Employment
Improving Employment Outcomes, 2024
Full Title: Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC): Improving Employment Outcomes for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
This is a current award to conduct research and knowledge translation projects that build on the evidence base for supported employment, with the goal of improving employment outcomes for individuals with serious mental illnesses. Research projects look at best practices in Individual Placement and Support (IPS), develop and test an AI Work Coach, trial cognitive self-management strategies for individuals in first episode psychosis programs, and look at the effects of government policies on employment outcomes. Training projects include developing a National Resource Center, conducting a training program to strengthen employment through peer support, implementing a course for families members, training providers to support employment, and providing online technical assistance to behavioral health systems.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2024-2029
Contact:
-
Marianne Farkas
-
E. Sally Rogers
-
Zlatka Russinova
Multiple Stigmas in the Workplace
Full Title: Enhancing Supported Employment Services for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities to Address Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination
The purpose of this project is to develop an intervention entitled “Managing Workplace Prejudice and Discrimination (MWPD)” and to test its effectiveness in increasing the employment outcomes of people with psychiatric disabilities receiving supported employment services. The MWPD aims to equip employment specialists with new knowledge and skills to address their clients’ concerns and experiences related to workplace prejudice and discrimination that may interfere with work performance and employment outcomes. The MWPD enhancement is being fully integrated in the IPS teams’ operations. Upon successful completion of the study, we will implement comprehensive dissemination and utilization activities targeting members of the IPS Learning Community and providers of other vocational rehabilitation services to people with psychiatric disabilities.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2021-2026
Contact:
-
Zlatka Russinova
-
Marianne Farkas
Improving Employment Outcomes, 2019
Full Title: Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC): Improving Employment Outcomes for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
The RRTC conducted both research and knowledge translation activities that built upon existing evidence-based supported employment, to improve employment outcomes for individuals with psychiatric disabilities. Research projects included qualitative studies of adaptations and access to Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services, examined performance-based incentives in IPS, tested a cognitive remediation intervention for work, developed and tested an innovative metacognitive intervention to improve work outcomes, and tested an integrated career guidance and supported education intervention. We also created a National Resource Center (NRC) on Employment and Vocational Recovery which provided academic and in-service training and resources to help providers and stakeholders improve employment services. We tested an innovative approach to benefits counseling, conducted online technical assistance to agencies and states, and developed and tested mobile programs to change providers’ low expectations about work.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2019-2026
Contact:
-
Marianne Farkas
-
E. Sally Rogers
Center on Knowledge Translation
Full Title: Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (CeKTER)
The goal of the Center on Knowledge Translation on Employment Research (CeKTER), 2020 – 2026, is to promote the appropriate use of research-based knowledge and products to improve services, approaches, practices and policies that support improved employment outcomes of people with disabilities, particularly among other grantees of the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). This award was a collaboration between Boston University and the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2020-2026
Contact:
-
Marianne Farkas
Job Coaching for Peer Providers
Full Title: Randomized trial of a coaching intervention to decrease work-related stress and turnover among peer providers – Coaching and Achievement for Peer Providers (CAPP)
The employment of peer providers in mental health settings has burgeoned in the past two decades but research suggests that they continue to experience workplace challenges, including role ambiguity and conflict, burnout and job stressors. The result can be turnover and job dissatisfaction, which in turn yields sub-optimal services for the thousands of individuals receiving peer support. The purpose of this study was to develop, refine and test a coaching intervention, informed by both best practices and the challenges experienced by peer providers. Using existing literature on coaching interventions, combined with expert input and the views of peer providers, we developed an intervention designed to support and coach peer providers. We recruited peer providers nationally and conducted a randomized trial to test the effectiveness of this newly developed coaching approach. Experimental participants were offered 16 sessions of coaching virtually and assessments were made of burnout, work engagement, role stressors, job satisfaction and intention to leave their job. Analyses of outcomes are underway.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2019 – 2023
Contact:
-
E. Sally Rogers
Healthy Aging
Supporting Individuals to Live as Vibrant Elders in Recovery
Full Title: Supporting Individuals to Live as Vibrant Elders in Recovery (S.I.L.V.E.R.)
This grant conducts both research and knowledge translation activities in order to both build an evidence base on enhancing late life for adults with serious mental illnesses/psychiatric disabilities and promote its use. The research program is comprised of projects that generate new knowledge relevant to older adults with serious psychiatric disabilities, and the National Resource Center (NRC) conducts dissemination, training and technical assistance, activities to increase the use of research findings.
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2020-2026
Contact:
-
Marianne Farkas
-
Zlatka Russinova
Supported Education
Peer Academic Coaching for College Students
Full Title: Peer Academic Supports for Success: Randomized Clinical Trial
Mental health conditions are prevalent among university students, putting them at elevated risk for dropout and long-term disability. The Peer Academic Supports for Success (PASS) grant developed a manualized model of peer coaching to assist college students with mental health conditions to persist and succeed academically, socially and with positive health. A randomized clinical trial documented that peer coaching significantly increased retention, GPA, self-efficacy, executive functioning, and coping skills for students. PASS is a unique supported education program intervention for colleges to meet the needs of students with mental health conditions.
Learn More About the PASS Program
Funder: National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
Project Period: 2020-2024
Contact:
-
Dori Hutchinson
-
Paul Cherchia